
JOURNALISM 
HIGH SCHOOLS 









Class __-i=^^i-^^^ 



lOKfRlGHT DEPOSrr. 



JOURNALISM 
FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 



A guide-book for students in conducting 
the school paper, and in preparing them- 
selves for newspaper work as a profession 



BY 

CHARLES DILLON 

II 

Formerly Professor of Industrial Journalism in the Kansas State Agricultural College 

at Manhattan 




LLOYD ADAMS NOBLE, Publisher 
31 West 15th Street New York City 



LB SU2-I 
Ms- 



Copyright 1918 
BY Lloyd Adams Noble 



FEB 23 1918 

©CI.A481873 



^t.1^ / 



PREFACE 



With more than forty state institutions offering 
courses in journalism as an elective study, it seems logical 
to assume that sufficient interest has been manifested to 
warrant the writing of a book giving definite preparation 
for such work in the high school years. Persons familiar 
with such questions have long known that few students 
enrolling in the freshman year in college have any clear 
idea of just what they intend to do. Too frequently 
journalism is chosen to fill out the assignments in college 
without any intelligent conception of its requirements, 
and just as often, perhaps, the student is disappointed 
after weeks or months have been wasted in attempting 
work for which he is unsuited. It is with the hope of 
eliminating this doubt and wasted time that I have 
arranged the program of study set down in this little 
book. Why should not the high school student know 
before going to college whether he cares to undertake 
journalism as part of his course? With hundreds of 
high schools printing papers of one sort or another, usually 
for practice in writing, why should not the methods and 
the ethics of this old profession be made plain in the 
formative years, when association and proper direction 
have the strongest influence in deciding the career to be 
chosen ? I believe careful study of the methods and rules 

iii 



iv PREFACE 

presented here will provide the help so many of these 
students need. 

The managers of newspapers, farm journals, trade and 
professional periodicals, and of great commercial and 
industrial enterprises also, find it increasingly difficult 
to obtain men and women who are competent to write 
concise, simple, correctly spelled English. Moreover, in 
striving for the sensational or so-called popular form of 
presentation too many forget the importance of accuracy, 
and so give evidence and conviction to the charge of 
carelessness, or worse, so frequently lodged against news- 
papers and magazines. Vocabularies burdened with 
trite, shopworn phrases are the despair of employers 
in every publishing house, whether the product be a news 
paper, a farm journal, a magazine, or books. 

In arranging the material presented here some peda- 
gogical necessities have been remembered. Every exam- 
ple has stood the test of long experience and of editorial 
supervision in standard colleges, newspaper offices and 
publishing houses. In brief the accepted method is pre- 
sented by use of which a writer may gain respectful con- 
sideration for his product whether he be student, teacher, 
reporter or man of business. 

"Magazines and newspapers never sleep or take 
vacations," said Professor J. T. Willard, Dean of Science 
in the Kansas State Agricultural College. "Their power 
to elevate mankind is incalculable. But printed knowl- 
edge becomes effective only as it is read, and to be read 
in this day it must stand out from the great mass of other 
matter, and gain the attention and hold the interest of 
the reader. To do this its points must be sharp and easily 



PREFACE V 

seen, and the style must be attractive. But if the pres- 
entation is not essentially true, the more attractive it is 
the worse it is; the greater the harm that follows its 
reading." 

Charles Dillon. 

ToPEKA, Kansas. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Preface iii 

The High School Paper i 

In Actual Practice 3 

The Equipment 9 

The Staff 1 1 

Paying its Way 13 

Making Up the Paper 17 

The Type for Advertising 27 

Writing the Headlines 30 

Preparation of Copy 43 

The Names of Things — Illustrations 48 

Cautions for Writers 50 

Studying the Exchanges 60 

What Is School News? 62 

Special Articles 66 

Interviews 73 

The Writing of Fiction 79 

Editorial Writing 86 

The Paper, the School, and the Alumni go 

Style 92 

Mixed Metaphors, and Other Errors 98 

The Law of Copyright 106 

The Law of Libel no 

Journalism, College, University, and Profes- 
sional 112 

Notes on Newspaper History 115 

vii 



Journalism for High Schools 



THE HIGH SCHOOL PAPER 

Every high school should have a paper, and if the 
best results are to be obtained it should be published once 
a week. If the purpose . be to give students practice in 
writing, and that should be the first thought, it should 
be a real paper, not a toy, no matter how small it may be, 
and every line written by students should be supervised 
by at least one member of the faculty. To conduct the 
enterprise without competent direction is to waste time 
and material, and very often' to injure the school. No 
better practice in the use of language could be devised 
than is to be found in writing of a day's events; but once 
permitted to go uncensored, unedited by a careful proof- 
reader in the school, the whole plan becomes worse than 
failure because it will create a false idea of the proper 
writing of English. No school should have a paper for 
any other purpose than to set up and maintain the right 
standards and ideals. 

Inevitably the writing of a paper will attract students 
who believe that later in life they may wish to engage in 
journalism in one or another of its special fields as a 
career. Quite naturally the experience will prove to be a 
process of elimination. A few months, often only a few 



2 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

weeks will be needed to prove that some of these boys 
and girls were mistaken, their enthusiasm short-lived. 
This fact, unfortunately, seldom is discovered until one 
or two terms in college have been wasted in trying to 
understand the purposes of the course in journalism. 

A student who is interested sincerely in newspaper 
work, who wishes earnestly to fit himself for a career in 
that profession, will not need to be urged to produce copy 
for his school paper. It provides his first genuine chance 
to write for publication something to be read by those 
whom he wishes to please, whose praise or approval he 
values. When the number of students who measure up 
to these requirements is compared with those who seldom 
write except under compulsion, it is not difficult to under- 
stand why the school paper may be a perfect machine for 
testing the students' real attitude toward journalism; 
or why it may be a dreary failure instead of a very valuable 
asset. The boys and girls who do the work that falls to 
their share will know when they go to college whether they 
care to undertake journalism in one of its branches as a 
career, or to enroll in the course merely for the practice 
in writing, an important part of any man's equipment in 
the business or professional world. 

A student assigned to write about an actual happening, 
something he has seen or erpects to see, is almost certain 
to produce a better theme or story than will be turned in 
by the average boy whose task is 500 words on the con- 
struction of Ivanhoe or The Winter's Tale. This is not 
intended, of course, to detract from the value and im- 
portance of the study of literature, for in this the boy 
prepares himself to write about the news event. Obvi- 



IN ACTUAL PRACTICE 3 

ously if he neglects the work in English he will have no 
vocabulary, no treasury on which to draw. The excel- 
lence of the high school paper, then, rests primarily upon 
the foundation built with good books. Certainly no 
such paper can have any value as practice if students put 
into it only the language of the ball field or the gymnasium. 

Careful preparation, censorship, faculty supervision 
will produce the high-class, commendable school paper. 
Censorship should not mean the excluding of all humor 
or student merriment from the weekly paper or the class 
annual. But it should mean the eliminating of attacks 
on those who have no chance to defend themselves; in- 
sinuations likely to injure the good reputation of boy or 
girl; "getting even" with some member of the board or 
faculty whose idea of duty has made him unpopular; 
caricatures that wound; jokes that leave a sting; slang 
that reflects unfavorably on the intelligence of writers, 
and, in short, every form of coarse, questionable wit or 
sarcasm resorted to by persons who seize eagerly an oppor- 
tunity to injure others anonymously. Wholesome fun, 
and every school abounds with it, is enjoyed by all 
normal human beings. Satire adds no laurels to the 
writer, and cynicism is not an evidence of mature wisdom. 

In Actual Practice. The most carefully edited 
metropolitan daily papers, and good trade and agricul- 
tural journals, should be examined for specimen stories or 
items. Note the principal facts upon which these stories 
are based, and then observe how those facts are described 
in detail. Analyze every sentence and paragraph for the 
information the writer seeks to convey. Set down in a 
note book any unusual words in the story, and watch for 



4 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

an opportunity to use them in your own writing. Con- 
trast the items you have selected with items in the high 
school paper, and discuss with the faculty adviser the 
different methods of treatment. 

While it would be unjust to expect gravity in every- 
thing written by the student staff, the tendency to write 
trivial and silly items will disappear if the best news- 
papers and magazines are studied, or at least that ten- 
dency will be very largely discouraged. Such exercise 
may be resented, gloomily, at first, but after the school 
paper has been quoted in reputable publications a few 
times the writers will know the satisfaction that comes 
to those whose work has been done well enough to merit 
outside attention. 

Perhaps there is no better way to emphasize the im- 
portance of mature supervision than to show here a 
paragraph clipped from a high school paper over which, 
apparently, the faculty has no control: 

Help! Police! Thieves! This was the 
cry of the frightened Physics 1 1 class 
Wednesday morning when Mr. , in- 
structor, stepped into the lecture room 
and found the package of test papers, indis- 
pensable to his marvelous discovery of ten- 
minute "quizzes" that have won for him 

renown in the halls of the high 

school had been taken from his desk ! 

It should not be difficult to convince students that no 
newspaper conducted by experienced, normal, human 
beings ever printed or would print such an item. A little 
reflection and study should prove to the satisfaction of the 
staff that the writer of this piece not only spoiled a really 
good story but in trying to be funny about it actually 



IN ACTUAL PRACTICE 



set down what did not happen, and made his paper 
ridiculous by affecting levity in telling about cheating in 
examinations. Such an item, read by parents or others 
not familiar with the situation, places the school in dis- 
repute. What the parents might think of the student's 
English diction also is worth considering. This point 
and its significance is emphasized in a paragraph taken 
from the seniors' column in another high school paper; 
the punctuation is reproduced exactly: 

A hardhearted blonde, of the senior 
class, came near committing a serious 
crime Tuesday night this week, when, ac- 
companied by her dark haired chum, who 
is much taller and much kinder-hearted, 
this little maiden went to the library to 
get her history notes, but before leaving 
home she called up a boy friend, and delib- 
erately told him that he should come to 
the library at 9 o'clock, and bring her 
chum's rosy-headed friend with him. 

Here, in sharp and pleasing contrast, is an editorial 
from another high school paper, written by a senior 
student : 

A school is judged by the conduct of the 
persons in it, both in and out of school. If 
one of us gets into trouble on account of 
some act or other the world at large con- 
cludes that we are all of the same caliber. 
Therefore every one of us should see that 
we do nothing which can reflect upon the 
good name of the school, and we should try 
to encourage all things which add to the 
good reputation of the school. 

Every school activity can be described in good English, 
and this includes athletics. An outlet for humor should 
be provided in a column set apart for the purpose, but it 
should be clean, with a proper restraint. In short, the 



6 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

high school paper should aim high so that in after years 
the files will be a source of pride instead of regret. Its 
purposes and its policies are well described in this edi- 
torial : 

It is the desire and intention of the pres- 
ent staff of this paper to make Red and 
Black, while under its control, outshine all 
productions of former years. We have 
made a departure from the usual order in 
appointing a faculty adviser who, although 
doing nothing herself, will be ever ready to 
lend a helping hand to any poor editor who 
has found his Rubicon. One of our chief 
endeavors will be to instil some "pep" 
into this magazine gotten out by one of the 
"peppiest" high schools in the South. 

We shall attempt, as far as lies in our 
power, to make the paper satisfy the needs 
of every student. The various depart- 
ments will be brimful of news of interest to 
a Hillsboroite. The literary department, 
especially, gives promise of being very 
good. Its aim is not only to give aspiring 
authors an opportunity of seeing the "chil- 
dren of their brains" in print, but also to 
give the students a chance to read some 
of the best short stories of modern times. 
The purpose of the local editors is to keep 
us acquainted with the activities of the 
several classes. Our exchanges keep us 
in touch with other schools; the athletic 
department gives an account showing 
whether the Terriers beat or are beaten, 
and the joke column contains a summary 
of the wise and witty sayings of the Sol- 
omons of the age — in Hillsboro. 

To get the best results in news-gathering the staff 
should meet at least three times a week, and in the begin- 
ning of its career should have present either the local 
editor or a teacher of EngHsh. To neglect such frequent 
conferences is dangerous to discipline, creates confusion, 
and results in a shifting of responsibility which sooner or 



IN ACTUAL PRACTICE 7 

later brings disaster. Particular attention should, of 
course, be given to proofreading. Printers will make no 
correction not plainly marked on the proof. An example, 
reproduced on page 8, showing the need of constant atten- 
tion to this part of high school journalism, is quoted from 
a monthly paper or book prepared by students in a town 
in the Middle West. It is characteristic of many such 
articles in the same publication. 

The need of careful editing and condensing is shown in 
this item : 

A meeting of the Sophomore Girls' So- 
ciety was held on Thursday, October 19th. 
Plans for a big Puritan Dance were dis- 
cussed. It will be held on the Friday be- 
fore Thanksgiving in the big gymnasium. 
All sophomore girls whose dues are paid 
are entitled to a ticket admitting her and 
an escort. For others it is 15 cents sin- 
gle, and 25 cents a couple. It's to be a 
real dance with extra fine music. Refresh- 
ments will be served, and there is to be an 
interesting program. Be sure and come! 
Everybody! Your money will be well 
spent. 

An editor, remembering the value of space, and having 
regard for the diction of his contributors, might be ex- 
pected to send this information to the composing room in 
this form : 

The Sophomore Girls' Society met 
Thursday, October 19th, and arranged for 
a Puritan dance, to be given Friday before 
Thanksgiving in the gymnasium. Sopho- 
more girls whose dues are paid are entitled 
to tickets for themselves and their escorts. 
For others the charge will be 15 cents a 
person or 25 cents a couple. There will be 
good music, and refreshments will be 
served. Be sure to come and enjoy your- 
selves. 



H 



JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

The New Lincoln School 





The. fJunior High School is H«^W on the 

north part of the Central School jjfrounds and faces the. 
south. It occupies the width of the iiloci< b etween Sev- 
enth and Eig-hth streets. It is constricted of dark brick 
and concrete and is decorated with syml)ols of learning- 
and other designs 



Over the main entrance is a desig^n 
of the "Alma Mater" teaching a boy and a girl. There 
are four floors, the sub- basement, basement, first and 
second floors. The sub-basement contains the ventilat- 
ing- system, the g-ymnasi um, and the furna ce room. 

The furnace room h a-; two |of the; next larg-est^ fur.iac^s 
of that constructioiy Either of these will heat the 




building-. The gymnasium is forty-six feet by seventy 
two feet with dressing- rooms and shower bath opening 
off oQ it. The heating and ventilatmg system occupies 
most of the subl basen-.ent. The fresh air comes from 
an opennig in the wall and passes through a spray of* 
water, and is heated to about a hundred and twenty 
dtigrees. It is then driven through the l.uiilding bv two 



enormous fans which make three huifillred revolutions a 
minu*e and are 
motors. The b 



run by two tenj horse Tpower electric 
asement comes next. The east end of 
thi^ floor is devoted to the girl^nre[)artment and has the ~^ 
domestic art, domestic science and lunch room and girls — 
toilet room The west end is for the boys, and has the 
manual training, printing, painting and box^y^toHet 
room. The manual training and )/rinting ro oms are 
fitted with machinery and toolsjto w/)rk with.Jj^ There 
is no connecting dojii" 
and girl 
the xxamn 

i 



assc 



■k 

iTthis flooy(- between the boy^^r 
ments. The first floor is reached ' 
entrance. On this flow are six class rooms. 1 
mbly hall, study hall, and tWe principal's office. 



). 



THE EQUIPMENT 9 

The Equipment. Before deciding to have a paper 
those chiefly interested, which number will, of course, 
include several members of the faculty, should consider 
carefully the human material at hand. Has any member 
of the teaching force had newspaper or magazine experi- 
ence? Can the editor of the local paper be depended 
upon to give his advice and assistance, and will he, if 
practicable, set aside a column in his own paper for a few 
weeks exclusively for school news written by the students, 
so that when the paper finally is established it may have a 
fairly well-prepared staff? Will the journalism depart- 
ment in the state college or the university provide the 
information needed in getting the paper started? Can 
the school afford its own printing plant, or shall the paper 
be printed in a local plant, by contract ? 

Because of the frequent fluctuations in prices charged 
for printing it is difficult to give more than an idea of how 
much, approximately, the school may have to pay for its 
work by contract. Some monthly school magazines in 
the Middle West pay $50 for an issue of twenty pages. 
One pays $2 a page for issues of 1000 copies having from 
24 to 48 pages; and this, in the smaller cities, is the price 
commonly charged. 

Although nearly all high school papers are printed by 
contract, it will be worth while here to present estimates 
for two of the less expensive outfits arranged by the sales 
manager of one of the largest type foundries. The first 
outfit might easily be bought by a high school, but its 
operation would call for skill not possessed by students, 
and not likely to be acquired by them without expert 
direction. A school having a manual teaching staff might 



10 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

very well undertake such work. The Pilot Lever press 
will print a paper as large as any high school should have : 

PILOT LEVER OUTFIT 

I Pilot Lever press, 65 X 10 inches $ 35 . 00 

I All brass galley, 6X10 inches 2 . 00 

I Imposing stone, 12X18 inches 2.00 

25 Pounds lo-point Caslon Old Roman type 1465 

I Font each, 8-, 12- and i8-point Plate Text No. 4 type 8. 25 

I Font each, 6-point No. 2, 4; 8-point No. 6; 10- point No. 7 and 

i2-point No. 9, Lining Plate Gothic 6. 20 

I Font each, 8-, 12-, 18-, 24 point Caslon Old Roman 1 1 • 75 

I Font each, 6-, 8-, 10-, 12-, 18-, 24-point spaces and quads. ... 3-15 

1 Pair new cases i . 60 

7 California job, and two Triple cases 8.10 

I Single stand. No. 4 for 12 cases 3.25 

I Font copper and brass thin spaces i . 00 

I Pound font 2-point L. S. single rule i . 60 

I Pound font L. S. bevel music rule i . 60 

5 Pounds 2-point L. S. leads i . 00 

5 Pounds 6-point L. S. slugs i . 00 

I Dozen Challenge Hempel quoins No. i , and key i . 50 

I Small mallet and planer .50 

I Six-inch Yankee stick .75 

Assortment of inks i . 00 

I Harris rule case No. I 1 . 25 



$107.15 



The more pretentious, six-column paper involves a still 
higher degree of skill in typesetting and in "making up." 
Some schools produce papers of this size, but it is some- 
what risky because of the uncertainty attending the 
supply of "copy." Two hundred dollars is rather more 
than many high schools could invest in equipment in 
which the depreciation is so rapid and expensive : 



THE STAFF ii 

ARMY PRESS FOR SIX-COLUMN PAPER 

1 Amiy press, 14X20 inches $ 60. 00 

3 All-brass galleys, 3^X23! inches 6,00 

2 Six-inch composing sticks i . 50 

3 Pairs new cases 4 . 80 

6 Job and Triple cases 5 . 40 

I News stand 3-75 

Mallet, planer, lye brush i . 10 

10 Pounds news ink 2 . 00 

ID Column rules, 6-point, 5 short 5.25 

3 Head rules, 6-point, 2 double, i parallel i . 20 

20 Advertising rules; 10 double; 10 single dashes i . 70 

20 Pounds leads and slugs cut to measure 4 . 00 

I Head for the paper 2 . 50 

75 Pounds lo-point Roman, standard Hne 34- 50 

50 Pounds 8-point, standard line 26 . 00 

I Font 8-point Woodward '. 2.25 

I Font 8-point Woodward extended 2 . 25 

I Font lo-point Woodward 2 . 50 

I Font lo-point Woodward extended 2 . 50 

I Font lo-point Woodward condensed 2 . 50 

I Font 1 8-point Woodward 3.20 

I Font i8-point spaces and quads .55 



5175-45 



The Staff. Social popularity is not necessarily a 
proof of business ability. Students who are to have 
charge of the business affairs of the school paper should be 
selected with regard to their class standing. They should 
be young men and young women of pleasing personality 
and keen intelligence who are likely to realize that the 
project they are undertaking involves certain moral 
standards not lightly to be set aside. It is an excellent 
course in business management, and it provides what 
many persons believe to be the most interesting laboratory. 



12 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

Ordinarily the seniors should lead the work of organiza- 
tion, but the juniors, sophomores and freshmen should 
have positions and assignments agreeable to their differ- 
ent educational qualifications. In this way there will be 
the proper incentive to work for promotion, and a laudable 
spirit of competition will be engendered which, if the 
underclassmen are ambitious, will prevent the paper's 
becoming wholly a senior publication. The year in 
which he is to be graduated should appear after the name 
of every member of the staff. Here is an ideal arrange- 
ment, offered as a suggestion : 



POINT COMFORT WEEKLY 



Printed every Thursday by the students of 
the Washburn High School, Rich- 
mond, New Hampshire 



Thursday, November 27, 1916. 



John W. Riley Managing Editor 

1918 

Associate Editors 

Martha Washington, '18 Locals 

Mary Scott, '18 Society 

Marco Morrow, '18 Athletics 

J. E. Griest, '18 Alumni 

Wilber Rhoads, '19 Exchanges 

Stanley Powell, '19 Art 

Mary Williams, '20. . . .Domestic Science 

Stella Nash, '20 Faculty News 

Floyd Nichols, '21 Agriculture 

Business Department 
George Stratton, '18. Business Manager 

D. W. HiTDDLESTON, 'i8 Circulation 

J. L. Vincent, '18 Advertising 

Faculty A dvisers 

Miss Rice Professor J. E. Brown 

Professor White 



PAYING ITS WAY 13 

To the foregoing list may be added, of course, several 
other assignments having interesting possibilities. Among 
these are literary editor, personals, drama, and any other 
school activity not included in the staff shown. Occa- 
sionally, too, the paper may be turned over for one issue 
to the girls or to some special class. When this happens 
the names of those chosen for the week should, of course, 
be substituted for the regular staff. As the girls pre- 
paring the special edition probably will have had no 
experience in making up a paper the regular staff, or at 
least the managing editor, should give all the help needed 
in that task. This service will not detract from the girls' 
record for getting out the paper. In some of the larger 
cities, notably Chicago, the special editions of high school 
papers are prepared with new cover, and sometimes with 
an entire change of type throughout the edition. Such 
elaborate plans are expensive, however. 

The staff must have an office. Good work cannot be 
done without it. The school authorities should set aside 
one room in which the students may have their desks 
or tables, their personal belongings, books of reference, 
dictionary, directory, typewriters and supply of paper. 
Here the editors and the reporters should do all work for 
the paper. Here all meetings should be held. The name 
of the paper should be on the door. To have the work 
done and the meetings held in the students' homes will 
prove a failure. The first lesson in dignity, the pleasure 
in owning something, of being in business, comes when 
the school staff moves into its own office. 

Paying Its Way. It should be realized in the beginning 
that the revenue from subscriptions will not pay for the 



14 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

paper and its printing. Advertising must be sought, 
and this puts the school into direct competition with local 
newspapers whose owners, especially in a small town, 
usually need the business very much more than do the 
students. In justice they are entitled to it without 
coming into conflict with the schools which they are 
taxed to support. However, if the staff still is determined 
to solicit advertising it should engage expert advice from 
the state college or university in preparing contracts for the 
space sold. If only local advertising is to be sought the 
work may be entrusted to one of the older students, but if 
outside or national business is desired the paper should be 
listed with one of the advertising agencies in the larger 
cities. These agencies charge a commission on all adver- 
tising placed for their clients. That is to say the large 
advertisers pay the agencies for placing their business. 
The paper expecting to get a share of this business must 
satisfy the agency as to circulation, not only in volume 
but sometimes in quality also. It is important for the 
agent to know whether the medium he selects goes into 
homes or into the campus trash cans. Quality has much 
to do with the rate. 

Business managers of high school papers should be 
very careful in accepting advertising contracts from 
agencies at a great distance. Among the many agencies 
in business there are certain to be some whose methods 
are not always what they should be. It will be important 
for business managers to inquire into the commercial 
standing of every agency. Having accepted a contract, 
copies of the paper carrying the advertising should be 
sent to the agency promptly upon publication, by regis- 



PAYING ITS WAY 15 

tered mail, as proof that the paper has done its part. 
This is necessary because many of the agencies pay for 
advertising for their cHents and are required to show- 
proof of service. The contract should stipulate that bills 
are to be paid promptly every sixty or ninety days, and 
no excuses for delayed payments should be accepted. 
Almost all national advertisers pay the agencies without 
any delay, and the same treatment for the school paper 
should be insisted upon. 

Ordinarily no subscriptions or advertising can be 
obtained until the students have something to show the 
prospective customers. Therefore a "dummy" is pre- 
pared. This is a copy or sample of the proposed paper 
as it is to appear regularly. It may be made up of school 
news, essays or short stories written by the students, and 
a number of free advertisements, set up to show type 
faces, and positions to be sold. With this sample the 
students, in seeking patronage, will in reality make a 
survey which will serve to indicate the paper's chances for 
success. 

No contract for printing the paper should be signed 
until the entire project has been described to the school 
at morning assembly, or in some other meeting of students 
and faculty. In order to give students an opportunity to 
consult their parents, no subscriptions should be requested 
in a preliminary meeting, but another meeting for this 
purpose should be announced for a date not more than 
two or three days distant. At that time subscription 
blanks should be signed, and the money paid to a com- 
mittee or treasurer before adjournment. No chances 
should be taken in this part of the negotiations. School 



i6 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

"pep" very often does not produce money if allowed to 
die out. No amount of sentiment will pay the bills for 
paper and printing. The business must be gone into 
carefully and wisely, with a full and intelligent under- 
standing of its responsibilities. Such activities will bring 
to the surface whatever business ability the students may 
have, and frequently will develop the most gratifying 
results. With encouragement from the faculty, the 
experiences encountered in getting the paper properly 
started will prove a very important part of the boys' and 
girls' education. They will learn the value of a dollar. 
With this knowledge will come a keen understanding of 
the importance of living up to obligations. In this one 
regard, if in no other, the boys and girls concerned in 
printing and managing papers in schools and colleges 
have gained a very important advantage over those who 
had no such practical experiences. 

No high school paper, regardless of size or number of 
issues, should be offered to subscribers for less than fifty 
cents a year, and no advertising should be printed for less 
than ten cents a line. In this connection it should be said 
that while no school paper is at all likely to accept ob- 
jectionable advertising, a violation of this rule is certain 
to embarrass its publishers with the Federal postoffice 
authorities. These officials maintain very rigid super- 
vision not only over the quality of the advertising, but 
over the subscription books also. They may, without 
previous notice, examine these books, and deny the paper's 
right to mail facilities as second-class matter if too high a 
percentage of the subscriptions are found to be in arrears. 
Advertisements describing contests or lotteries should not 



MAKING UP THE PAPER 17 

be printed until the opinion of the postmaster has been 
obtained. 

Making Up the Paper. A well-edited paper or a 
class annual carefully and intelligently prepared is an 
excellent advertisement for a high school, just as a slov- 
enly product is a detriment. Thoughtful students and 
instructors have realized the truth of this, as many very 
excellent examples prove. Printed pages, like bread cast 
upon the water, frequently come back in after years when 
life has taken on a different aspect. Not alone the con- 
tents of a paper are important, but its make-up also has 
an effect at once pleasing or disappointing. The paper's 
name should mean something for the school, and its whole 
appearance should be as inviting as an artistic menu. 

If the staff decides to issue a book or magazine instead 
of a newspaper it should prove its loyalty to the school 
and the town by putting the names of both on the cover. 
Many high school magazines fail to give this information 
except on the editorial page, where it is required by law 
in the notice of postoffice entry. An agreeable effect 
may be produced by using some such plan as this : 



THE EAST END HERALD 

A Monthly Magazine 
Published by Students 

of the East End High School 

January, 191 8 

Pittsburg Penna 

Vol. II, No. I 



18 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 



trfte Jligf) ^cljool OTorlb 



Published by the Students of T. H. S. 

Eighth and Harrison Streets. 

Member of Kansas State High School 

Editorial Association. 



Entered as Second-class Matter in the 
Postoffice at Topeka, Kansas 



STAFF 

Editor-in-Chief Ewing Fergus 

Associate Editor Maym Parsons 

Business Manager Orrin Berridge 

Assistant Manager Harry Bennett 

Faculty Manager Mr. Brawford 

Literary Editor Charles Hoyt 

Pills "Pill" Bowman 

Locals. . . . Lillian Gleissner, John Troxell, 
Dorothy Wahle, Claire Menninger 

Assemblies Natalie Romans, Mary 

Christman 

Athletics Paul Young 

Freshman John Ferris 

Exchanges Lawrence Myers 

Komics Harry Davis 

In the Meantime Homer Davis 

Staff Artists 

Maym Parsons Ralph Oman 

Esther LindcU 



LAWRENCE ? 



For the last five or six years the game 
with Lawrence high school has been the 
big event of the football season. For that 
game we always saved all our surplus 
energy, all our best plays, and all our 
loudest cheers; for no other game could 
attract so large a crowd, bring forth such 
splendid rooting, or exhibit such brilliant 



The first page of a school magazine, or what printers 
usually refer to as Page 3, should bear the name of the 



MAKING UP THE PAPER 19 

paper, the name of the school, the date, and the volume 
and number. Here is a very sensible example : 

The Hyde Park Weekly 

THE GREATEST HIGH SCHOOL JOURNAL 
SIXTY -SECOND STREET AND STONY ISLAND AVENUE 



Volume VII Thursday. November 9, 1916 No. 9 



A Marine Mistake 

Jean Bruce. 

The door from the smok- The first twenty-four 

ing room of the steamship hours of the trip were so 

"Madrid" opened and a rough that but few of the 

young man of fashionable passengers appeared on 

appearance stood in the deck. In the evening the 

flood of light. He closed storm waves were left be- 

The editorial page may be arranged to suit the fancy 
of the staff. The necessary details may be confined to 
one column or the entire width of the page may be used. 
Both styles are shown in this chapter. If the business 
office can provide the money to pay the bills the paper 
can be improved in appearance by having cut heads for 
all departments, and by using as many engravings as 
possible. The drawings for these usually can be made 
in the art department of the school. Only black ink 



20 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

can be used for this purpose, and it should be of the same 
quality used in all drawings for reproduction. Depart- 
ment headings, of course, may be kept standing for fre- 
quent use. Zinc etchings are to be preferred to half- 
tones because they are very much cheaper, and in most 
cases give better results unless the best of book paper 
and high-grade inks are used in printing. Cartoons by 
clever students always are welcome, and do much to 
brighten the pages. Illustrations receive attention where 
solid printed matter is neglected by readers. No issue 
should go to press without one or two good engravings on 
the front page, if in newspaper form. It may be neces- 
sary occasionally to write a story around some available 
picture, and this is not difficult to do. News value is to be 
considered, of course, but any clear, sharp engraving 
suited to the season would be acceptable to enliven the 
page. 

Printers are, as a rule, more cordial to writers, editors 
or copy readers who understand the limitations of type, 
and who have, in addition to their knowledge of routine 
desk work, an intelligent idea of make-up. This knowl- 
edge can be acquired only after long experience, but 
enough for the purposes of a high school paper will be 
gathered in a few months, depending of course, on the 
keenness of perception and artistic ideals of the student. 
Some persons will see nothing wrong in a poorly balanced 
page while others, with eyes for proportion, will know 
immediately that a five-column paper should carry only 
three three-deck headings on a page, the alternating col- 
umns being filled in with two-line headings. Too much 
balance, the placing of items according to size, rather 



MAKING UP THE PAPER 

Colorado Stale Normal School News Letter 



21 



®I|0 '^nm IG^tt^r 



EDITORIAL STAFF 

Junior A Composition Class with Miss 
Helen BlacltstoA, Editor-m-Chief 

ENROLLMENT AT GRAND JUNC- 
TION PASSED FIVE HUN- 
DRED MARK 

It was a lively and enthusiastic 
bunch of pedagogues that filled the 
streets of Grand Junction during the 
three days of the Western Slope meet- 
ing. Their eagerness for inspiration 
was pretty well met hy the speakers 
selected. I>r. Bryan seemed to be a 
general favorite: his addresses d'^alt 
■with things ^^ta^ to character rather 
than with specific theories of teaching. 

The C. S. N. S. luncheon was ex- 
cellently planned. .One hundred twen- 
ty-five loyal Normal School' Alumni 
flid ample justice to the well served 
meal. Mr. Quigley presided with 
grace, and the after-dinner speeches 
and music were unusually apt and 
entertaining. 

President Kelley, who is president 
of the State Teachers' Association, 
showed his executive ability in the 
management of the three division 
•meetings; and the Normal School is 
proud of his success. 

— 00 — 

Miss Neva Newell, '17, writes from 
Mancos, Colorado, that fhe is teach- 
ing thirty-two pupils in the Wattles 
rchool two miles from Mancos. Sh'? 
bas a splendid building of cement with 
a large assembly hall, a lunch room, 
a pantry, and a fine enti-ance hall. 
They do not lacTt for music or good 
literature either as thev have an Edi- 
son, an organ, and a library contain- 
ing three hundred volumes. Miss 
"Newell planned a social for Hal- 
lowe'en, the funds to go to the Red 
•^••oss. 



Under- the direction of Hon. J. L. 
McBrien of the National Bureau of 
EducatioT\, a conference on Rural Edu- 
cation will be held in Denver, Nov. 
22-24. Miss Mary M. Hughes, Direc- 
tor of the Rural department of the C. 
S. N. S. and President Kelley expect 
to attend. Mr. Kelley has been invited 
to preside over the afternoon session 
of Nov. 22, and to give an address on 
the 24th on ths subject: The Making, 
of the Ruial Teacher — ^in State Noi^ 
nal Schools. 



President Kelley left Friday for Sa- 
lida to attend the Chaffee County 
Teachers' Institute. He will give an 
address on the subject "Danger 
Points." 



The Montrose County Teachers' and 
Directors' Association will be held at 
Nucla, Nov. 16 and 17. Miss Emma 
Full, the County Superintendent, is 
doing a great work for the rural 
schools under her supervision. 



Miss Bonita Heiner, '14, has com- 
pleted a four months' school at Gothic. 
She has been elected at Maher, Mont- 
rose County, and took up her work 
there about the middle of Octdber. 
They are just completing a- new school 
house in Maher which accounts for the 
late beginning. 



Miss Hulda Johnson, '17, reports 
that she is teaching in Orangeville, 
Utah. Although Ot-angevflle is forty 
mfles from a railroad, it is a delight- 
ful community. They have a six-teach- 
er school, with domestic science and 
art, supervised play, and other up-to- 
date features. 



Miss Evelyn Parr, '17, is at San 
Fernando, about twenty-one miles 
from Los Angeles. There is a train- 
ing school in connection with the ac- 
ademy in which she teaches, and th". 
is critic teacher of sixth, seventh, and 
eighth grades. She also has a class in 
music methods. She says, "I received 
the Ne^vs Letter the other day, and 
how I did appreciate it! It seemed 
just like a friend from home; it will 
always be welcome;'" 



' A letter has been received from Miss 
Laura Taylor, '15, at Pueblo. The 
following is an extract: "All last 
year "The Pueblo Alumni" thought 
they would organise and at least plan 
a luncheon, but you know we are so 
busy and lime flies so quickly that we 
never accomplished that puipose. This 
year some are here and some are 
there. Lila Haines, 16, has a leave 
of absence and is in Canada. She re- 
ports many interesting features con- 
cei-nrng the vrar and- is taking an ac- 
tive part in Red Cross work among the 
convalescents in the hospital. Clara 
Wilson, '16, is doing special work in 
seventh and eighth grades at Hinsdale. 
Eva Parker, '16, is back at Riverside; 
she is much interested in her dry fai-m 
near Rye. As usual I am back and 
have a few new ideas for Riverside. 
We have a class in knitting and one 
class in First Aid." 



22 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 



!illIilIlillliilllllllllll!llllllllllllillll!illlllIlllll!!illlllllllM^ 



illlliB 



I The INDIAN LEADER I 



■IIIIIIH^ 

A SYSTEM OF SCHOOL ENROLLMENT 
RECORDS. 

By C. E. Birch. 




SYSTEM of school enioUment 
records to fulfill its purpose sat- 
isfactorily should be planned with 
reference to the following essen- 
tials: 

1. Accuracy. 

2. Permanence. 

3. Convenience. 

The first can only be obtained by regularity, 
daily checks which are religiously observed. 
To obtain the second is comparatively easy, 
as it is necessary only to use good ink and 
paper and to provide a place for safe-keepins. 
The most convenient form of record is un- 
doubtedly the loose leaf and binder, which 
makes it possible to transfer all obsolete or 
inactive material without interference with 
that which is active. 

The five forms shown herewith have been 
found very convenient and satisfactory at 
Haskell. Forms 1 and 4 are kept in loose-leaf 
binders. Form 2 is a temporary record, sub- 
ject to change and verification, and is placed 
in the pupil's folder after it has served its 
purpose. Form 3 is also merely a temporary 
record and is not preserved after the detail list 
is completed. Form 5 i> but partially shown. 
It is a heavy manila card, not kept in a binder 
but in a folder when not in use. A more de- 
tailed explanation of each form follows: 

Forml. — This is the first record of the pu- 
pil's attendance. Two reports are made daily, 
one for boys and one for girls. These reports 
include all changes in enrollment up to mid- 
night of the day preceding the date given. 



In the column for names should be given those 
of all pupils who have been enrolled, returned 
from leave, -.ent outing, deserted, etc., with 
proper explanations under thd "Remarks" 
column. From this record it will be easyto 
,comi)ile the data required in the monthly re- 
port of attendance to the office (5-249). Post- 
ings are also made to Form 4, "Attendance" 
column. 

t'orm 2.— When the pnpil is sent to the 
principal for classification, this form is made 
in triplicate, by the use of carbon sheets. A 
copy is retained by the principal and a copy 
sent to the person in charge of detailing; the 
remaining copy to the classroom teacTier. 
When grade and detail have been definitely 
determined, the copies are turned over to the 
principal, who makes the proper entries on 
Form 4, showing the grade entered and the 
industrial department to which assigned, and 
any other information not available from the 
pupil's application blank. 

Form 3, — This temporary blank is given 
the pupil to carry to the industrial instructor 
to whom he is assigned. A carbon copy 
should be retained by the person making the 
assignment. From these tickets a complete 
detail list can be complied. In .case of 
changes or transfers, the same form may be 
used. 

Form U. — As indicated, this "Enrollment Re- 
cord" is compiled from the pupil's application, 
from the temporary enrollmentrecordslip, the 
daily attendance report, etc. These records, 
should be arranged alphabetically, with boys' 



MAKING UP THE PAPER 



23 



than because of their relative importance, becomes inar- 
tistic, and tires the critical eye. Some make-up men 
carry balance to excess, and thereby create the impression 
of machine-made, rule-of-thumb make-up. 



SHAMOKIN DAILY NEWS 



HAIL STORM CAUSED DAMAGE 

AT MT CARMEL AND KULPMONT 'Hpsp.fALsi pqr HEAD OF NEW HOSPITAL 



Mm Ikin a Fool of Ha.l Fell list E>»mg in KNIEHtS OF C E 
llcilK!i>nng lonni-eirdl Killed as Ihi) Salon I "FID BANguil 

f«oi- FoliaflO of Troel and Tfuek PalcNcs \ ...... ^ 

Wore Fluinod TampofafurB Dropped to 40 '"...' . 

Oajreei and Cfcildfen Made Nerr) |.;,. .i; •„- V";,; , 

Stedding on Ika Ice— The Damago ur£; ■''";;':,r''?^'"V' 



■ OUNt CARMEl HAS Anoouneem.nl Made al lit Carmil That lahaie, 
AOOt l^fllCHFR c,^ ,,„ i, 1, j„ tk, -Appplntmeol-«an, 
. . ....I Fade Lead Up to Belief That Ruimf la Wall 

Founded Doctor la at F'reaent " Pony 
' ;':-.- inj Courie ■« Famooi Kayo Hoapilal. 

■'..;•.'■! Has Offered Kn Home For Sill 



'ixr,:: 






SHOOTING RFFR/iY ATKENTRALIA WILL 
! IN ALL PKOBABILITY RESULT IN MURDER 



, AH A6iD WOMAN .[WITMEB BENDIRED WHERE DO All ■ -~, ~.« g.,— ..■c..„^r...„..„. 

UGHTNINd STRUCK A HOME; | 'J^ suicide^ i«P0RTANr ofcisiON^ the pehnies GoyoUNO BOYS DAMAGED THE 

■""" ■ . .......-'..-..._......' PROPERTY OF LOCAL FIRM 



WOMEN HAD A CLOSE CflLt .«j;;_'--j;?.tLSi£-.v 



SfrMDRiN'TunBEn tOMMflr 

AW ARDED HOSP ITAL WORK 

^^^j11i^~^L^. 




STATE CONVENTION OF ODD FELLOWS TO 
READING I N.STEHP QF TO HARRISBURG 




tlONEr (UOFlELO IPIOKEER RESIDEtlT 
„. JS iOOHmAllI . _ {lEO AI NOON 



SUSPECTED WRECKER IS WEAK 
MINDED : MAY BE C UILtV ONE 



24 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 



BEAT INDEPENDENCE TURICEY DAY 

N. H. S. BOOSTER 



NEODBSHA, KANSAS. MOND 



LOST TO ALTOONA 

^r«o<Iy'9 stuttered Te&in Lost Pint 
Gune or History to Altoon 

In a one elded hattla with Neody 
(UylDg ft shattered team. AJ 
defeated NfOdeaba Friday, hf a 

Neodesba was clearly out-classed 
Irom tba Ilrst and were only able 
to play a defensive game through 

five of Neodeeba's players who 
eubelttuted by weaker men, probBb|y 
made tb* victory eaaltr for Al 
IbBD It tkould have been had these 
meo been Id thir places. The AJ 
loona team played a good coDBlBteni 
game only falling 'o make dowoi 



on the local field. Altoona support 
ed t) eir team- loyally, although no 
riKi-ely spoftamaJi-Hkie. AUIiougt 
we nad a lostog leam tbey ^oult 

do Dot have better support Thanks 
glv^g, we canpiot have boifca o: 



itr recelTed a oheci from 
3. ex. '17. tLe other day 
tcrlpttOD. Snele was tbe 



ichooj at Springfield. Mo 



Friday «a8 our unusual *'pep" 
day and altho' we didn't start nnr 
yelllDg Id a very vplrltaa] nLaaaer. 
we got together at tbe U0 In aome 
real yella. We started oar singing 
with MlM UiterbaLk leading oor new 
root ball song Tbea -^ loined In 
tbat tamlllai song, dear to ut all, 
"Our Old Hl^h." 



1 Gay ZtMiola MKlaren Pleased Large 



There will be big dolnga o 
gridiron turkey day. It plant 
are now being made prove an 
ful. It la planned to have Keode- 

leam from Independence aa a pre- 
liminary to tbe bleb school g 
Id other words it Is planned 
Neodesba to cop two •ictorlealoatead 



SEARCY IS RECOVBRING 

Stju- PuU-Bark Will Be Back 
School SOOD. 

■■^111" Searcy, Neody'e star 



■obably 
tho attend- 



SanjE TM-n S. 
Wednesday i 



n Chapel. 



The Junloi 
earing tbeli 



will probably 



I pelectlon of i 



Od ( 



one moniioc 



saw Mr. Orayuia oomlng op the 

wblakers on tls face. said. "Aw I 
know wbo yoQ are. Dob't Xtj to 
htde^" 



Zanola MacLaren'a ablilty aa j^read- , and ^ gymQasliu 

en appeared, as the second nui 

From her large repertoire. MIb3 

erance play -Bought and Paid For,' But since the G 

excellent abUtty. together wlt^ pers- building on Poui 
onal beauty. Impressed her large longa to Lo>ii6 i 

Jtmmy GlUey and hta tinancee. an^ ftk^t hall coach stated that he 
later, wife, Fanny. She put enouga -would make an effort to st^ure the 
pathos In the characters of ISx. Star- building if the student body aatT 
ford and Virginia, but 'not eoougb t'oe tonn basket ball rans would can- 
to make It seem eeDtimenlal; and tribute enough lo pay the reot'Prof. 
there was enough wit and humor'lo Griffin's plau Is ro have a town leacc 



I p(«s]bti- 



udlei 



^efforts. 
atlon by 



besidea basket ball, so IhM a 
m^oibershlp may 0' obtatnod. 






: hand dapping 



dDWi^ay; 
caused 

e pupils '' 



MANUAL TRAINING 



n,e ;.n,e .Irb Columbus I. .h»jM 
Monday -He »aid Ibai If the tAm 



Mar- Lord Study. Mar> Lord 



Let's Have a 

Come-Back bu] 
Turkey Day ^J 



I ilQTi«biAfor the 
>Wbti« obtaI;^d It, 



MAKING UP THE PAPER 



25 



The Kansas Industrialist 



Kanwi fiUUi Acricoltanil CoUr^e, MftnltH 



TDRNONTHEltOUDEAUX. 


.js:.7i:p"r.ir.::: 


CLOD. NOT DIST MULCH. 


'^f^^;^;^ 


WOKK IN THE GAKlJKN. 


iR*T sruAt II Dire nuoKC 


JANDl^r nrLtlMl HI* advicb cob 


• IITV NI'<IM UFTUWATxri 41.* to 


(•l«*IUM»Hll»urK* 


^o°«bit !^^i..''rrd'?."k."7-,*j^ 


MUI>H3>M*n«**PAMMB«« 


rr/orcr"^"' 


iia^ti OUT THIS iv.iM. 


ft^.. .... i.M—. r... M-r ".w. t- 


!!..». «»« ^-.. r.™«. 1)^4.^.^ 


B«-.4. *« »..p. o. K..,. ..,.,„., ,.^ 


*"i«'w-!:,.^-v^:'T;.;t:;i;«f* 


-«lth7c'l.ul'l orwi^LnT''.. W 


"'-^V«.-'!l w ."" ."ilC"' 


■■WI,»™il-,MuodU !..««««.. 


"'■';.«. Tm*""".:;;."'" 












J«U 4tl«r Ui- cloM*r o«p» open loJ 


for .11 lh.»«Mi. bul ™'^'";' •» 'J- 


Il-«iclod o«.'.du.in.»lA ib.L 


bi-d betora planKoK tlioc Sucli t..l 


ll.a Kkntaocn al itia K.nta* Sum 


|«%t"bi'l(ir« (h«"llo-cr UaJi uololJ ii 


Dl" w'"l''vi*Bi'iif»'to 'i:'l'rf'^'"""tho 


.h..<M<-.Ur.i.oll.g.«^ca,a.«.l.-U 


iitalloii tbould t»r>a •« earl^ iv po. 




Alh!Tu?eirAV'pfof<o\.r''oV'h'r'* 


"«^r "!,"k««'X^."i-' i"ct;l 


'"'l"'?™'it™r.^rj.« «.m, f»r™er. 


'l',o°l.l"'bo' bro'lfJ^"! rw'"...^/ h' ".'» 


I^^rVa'nM,?' -,T("^*«T iTVl"! 


culture al th« Kaotli A^icuUur>l 


1'^. iiinchtrepol the -...ill I o" 


O.ll ttlMV b^I.MO lMl-« PMoroM-t..1«l 


ram Iherrafler Wllh lucli «-'J'»> 


*|iiinj fof MpiriDicniatin-i I:.<unl» 












„,*i77» ro3td\«r'i'i"c'^'og L^b'; 


WHEAT_BO MILLION? 


u.:dl"'''"A ro"r!,"lT«''o*;X!^"^ 


"bi!^ O^Tuche.U^*t"r!.1."M 


iiM. aad aoiuoltincti. 
















lr.tW (A l*o. or (ht» iMh liv^r ol 




.e-PUW^am^o-n.MrotuI .«....d. 






nnilf pul>eri(«] «<w. o.'i- a bfld 




..1 II* ,ieldi h«.rr kc,,t »f. il,.ii .h. 






woulil oDir the *erj bc^ cl.aoc* Fnr 














!*»» *«rlMlM f... Kaom cnn.1, (...«* 






.hould bo ..olded/yi cloil raulch i> 














.k^le.^ toahat coDd.lloni a.e n.wl. 






"Th. ■Haiti. fTDOtator oa ahMH. 






".Vit"°I.'nl^'oM^.'J 'Jio«» '-^^ 


i«rr^^" wb^j^.u"' ««?''*'''' 


Xp?"C.>.V'('J^'lr«oI'ito'' ."^ 


^°g™/.d .a hZconZiTL pV.»; 


C'iji^'ll'l.il'^wlrt '"' """" "^ 


Ml°M.Vp'"J PC.-J." .f«l m. 1. 


(ioxrniiKat reiwrt* l»ic .1 Apnl 1 


«arlau* t,p» nf eoni culU»aM.r* are 


mu"ur. and i-Um lw.d Uw I!) Iht' 


•niuCHivu TMe v>ii. 


)utl befwe >!'« l""!! l"!" "J HW" *»j tl.al tho tgoO'lioo '.i "nc»t id 




**—"•• "''•'%*"tVriD!V^-.*.': T ' 





Of course no paper, in school or in the business world, 
would be properly prepared if it had no accepted style 
for doing things, for presenting its contents. There must 
be a standard for every act. Rules of capitalization 
must be adopted and enforced. Nearly every newspaper 
has a formal set of such rules, and so have all well- 
managed schools. Students conducting a high school 
paper may obtain such guidance from the department of 
journalism in the state university or they may adopt the 
standards offered here as representative of many of the 
largest publishing houses. 

For example: Capitalize all departments of the Fed- 
eral government, and all bureaus of those departments. 
This includes the President, the Chief Justice, the Secre- 
taries of the several departments. Do not capitalize 
state boards. Use capitals for state institutions. 

Capitalize: Bill Brook Farm; Connecticut Valley; 
the Potomac River; Civil War; Fourth of July; Twen- 
tieth Century; Declaration of Independence; Golden 
Rule; Ten Commandments. Capitalize large geograph- 



26 JOURNALLSM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

ical divisions such as Southwest, Middle West, North, 
South, East and West, when those parts of the country 
are referred to, and not points of the compass. The 
wind was blowing from the east. The man made his 
fortune in the South. He was going north. He had 
lived in the North. 

Ordinarily all figures below lo should be spelled. Use 
figures for age, inches, feet, yards, rods, acres, and miles, 
and for minutes and hours and time; also for quantities, 
as in recipes. The rule for figures should vary when 
necessary to avoid awkwardness. Examples accepted: 
Not two in fifty would sign it. One by one the men 
left camp. Nine times in ten. 

Write it lo million dollars, i| million bushels. Other 
numbers require ciphers: He owned 2,600,000 acres. 
It amounted to $2,300,000. 

Fig. I for Figure i. 

No. I for Number i. 

In pedigrees. Crimson Wonder 2d, instead of Crimson 
Wonder 2. But write it Eighth Duke of Waterbury 
when number precedes name. 

The character "&" is used in all firm names or titles 
of railroads. 

Use judgment concerning use of hyphen, but avoid 
making fussy distinctions about it when correcting proof. 
Comm^on words of one syllable may be combined without 
hyphen, but where one of the words is of two or more 
syllables the hyphen may be used to make the sentence 
clearer. Such expressions as one-horse cart and two-row 
cultivator require it. Use hyphen and word combina- 



SETTING TYPE FOR ADVERTISEMENTS 27 

tions as sparingly as possible to facilitate linotype com- 
position. 

Such combinations as today, yesterday, nowadays, 
withhold, notwithstanding, are to be used according to 
custom — without the hyphen. 

Ordinary rules of punctuation should be followed, 
but introduce a quotation a single sentence in length with 
a comma; two or more sentences with a colon. 

Avoid use of parenthesis when a comma will do as 
well. 

Don't use dashes too frequently in sentences. 

Possessive Case — Jones's dog (appHes to names of 
persons only). 

Brackets are used for all interpolations. 

Spell out name of state where it follows name of 
county, but abbreviate it after name of town or place. 
Example : Topeka, Shawnee county, Kansas ; Topeka, Kan. 

Spell out names of all railroads. 

Spell out Professor unless initials are used. 

Christian names, except where purposely used as 
nicknames with quotation marks. 

Titles, such as Governor, Colonel when followed by 
the name. 

Write it "The Rev. J. W. Brown," not "Rev. Brown." 
Nearly all ministers prefer to be called "Mr." unless they 
have a degree of Doctor of Divinity. 

Setting Type for Advertisements. Very little free- 
dom of choice should be permitted the printers in setting 
advertisements, especially in small towns where the best 
talent is not always employed. Some compositors 
are disposed to use all the type faces in the shop in 



28 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

setting a page of cards, with the unpleasant effect shown 
here: 

DA. 0. A. HENNERICH \ Dr. H. B. Neiswanger 

Physician & Surgeon 

OCULIST 

Office over The Hays City Drug Store 
Phone No. 356 



Dr. W. H. JORDAN 

Office over Citizens Bank Building, 
entrance Soathside 



Phones;.Office 84 



Residence 59' 



FOR ALL KINDS OF 

GROCERIES 

HAYS, - - - KANSAS 



DENTIST 

Guaranteed Dentistry; Painless Ex- 
traction of Teeth. 

STAINER BLOCK, Phone 291. 



K. C. HMS. M.D. 

Physician and Surgeon 

Office in First National Bank Building 

Phones: Residence, 333; Office, 273 



DR. GEORGE P. HEMM 

Physician &. Surgeon 

Phone 90. Weisner Block 

HAYS, - - KANSAS 



THE MISSES VIRMOND 

Millinery | 

Hays, 



DR. A. A. HERMAN 

Dentist 
Office: Hays City Drug Store 

Phone 341. 



K 



ansas , 



DR. E. J. CARLSON 
^ 1 Physician & Surgeon 

The Ellis County News Phone485. Weisner Block 

The best Advertising medium HAYS, KANSAS 

Trr Western Kansas ; . . . 

First-Class Job Work a Specialty. 



E. A. RE A 

LAWYER 

HAYS. - KANSAS 



CALL AT 



King's Barber Shop 



J. S. Vermillion M. D. 

Practice Limited to 

Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat 
Including Fitting of Glasses 

Office in Ryan Block Hays, Kas 



Geo. B. Snyder, M. D. 



Office Phone, 
Residence Phone, 



HAYS, 



148 
69 

KANSAS 



SETTING TYPE FOR ADVERTISEMENTS 29 

How much better is this page in which the compositor 
has been restricted to one style: 



PROFESSIONAL CARDS 



DR. W. N. WEST 

DENTIST 
Phone 1155 W 707 MiUs Bldg. 



DR. L. V. SAMS 

PHYSICIAN AND SUKGEON 
Phone 1660 W 726 Kansas Ave. 



DR. S. A. BOAM 

PHYSICIAN 
3>hone 261-W Orpheum Bldg. 



DR. A. B. JEFFREY 

PHYSICIAN 
Phone 1604-W 706 Kansas Ave. 



FOY & FOY 

CHIKOPEACTOES 
Phone 3078 716 Kansas Ave. 



DR. A. F. HARRISON 

Phone 1086 B 718 Kansas Ave. 



DR. S. G. STEWART 

DR. JAMES STEWART 

DR. R. B. STEWART 

New England Bldg 



DRS. BOYD & KUTZ 

DENTISTS 
Phon« 3458-W Orpreum Bldg 



SETH A. HAMMEL 

PHYSICIAN 
Phone 1428 811 Kansas Ave. 



DR. W. E. JEFFREY 

DENTIST 
Phone 1604 W 706 Kansas Ave. 



DR. C. B. VAN HORN 

PHYSICIAN AND SUBOEON 
Phone 301 W 803 Kansas Ave. 



DR. F. E. ISERMAN 

DENTIST 
Phone 1003-W 716 Kansas Ave 



DR. K. S. McGREW 

DENTIST 
Phone 3103 729 Kansas Av* 



DR. MENNINGER 

Phone 19W 727 Kansas Ave. 



so JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 



Headlines and Copy Reading. Instruction in read- 
ing copy and in writing headlines is invaluable. It 
teaches students to detect the errors in their own writing 
while correcting the copy of others. It sharpens the in- 
tellect and adds very materially to the vocabulary in 

SCHOOL SPIRIT COMES 

WITH NEW PRINCIPAL 



STUDENTS AT CENTRAL HIGH 

PUT THE SCHOOL BACK 

ON SCHOOL SPIRIT 

MAP 



M. C. PRUNTY IS WELL LIKED 



New Principal Starts All Activities 
at Full Speed and Inaugurates 
New Ones — Will Add Jour- 
nalism Next, Year. 



That Central High School is back on the 
school spirit map, is an established fact. 
With the coming of Merle C. Prunty, the 
new principal of tlie school, all the latent 
and undeveloped spirit of Central sprang 
into vivacious life. At Auditorium meet- 
ings, in the halls and on the athletic field 
this new spirit is manifest. It has talten 
the f<irm of renewed activity in all school 
endeavHJrs: orchestra, literary societies, 
athletics and The Koruiii. . It has given 



dents. "1 believe the class ought to have 
some societies," Mr. Prunty said in speaij- 
ing of the junior college, "but if the 
students aren't interested. I am not going 
to push the matter." When a body of 
college students asked the principal's per- 
mission to form a science club, he readily 
acquiesced. 

More 'Vet to Come 

Most students believe that Mr. Prunty 
has shown but his hands, and do not try 
to surmise what is "up his sleeves." but 
they feel whatever, it is, a pleasant sur- 
prise awaits them. The students realize 
that the principal is for real action and 
continued work, and most of th<.m started 
at the shot of the gun, and are still go- 
ing at a winning pace. 

Mr. Prunty is an.xious to get all the 
classes organized. For the first time in 
several years,, the ' principal called the 
meeting of the senior class. While noth- 
ing definite is worked out by the classes, 
they are all optimistic about the success 
that they plan to be theirs. 

Mr. Prunty succeeded Frank C. Toulon 
as principal of Central High School this 
September. When appointed by the school 
board in June, he asked to be permitted 
to finish his studies next summer, that he 
was prepared to do this summer, and was 
granted his request. 

He assumed his duties at Central July 
15, after moving to St. Joseph from Win- 
fields Kijn. whero ho v,c>.- n.-innln.-, I r,f_ll,c 



seeking words to fit the requirements of type for head- 
Hnes. It is a study no student should miss, regardless of 
whether he intends to become a professional writer or to 
enter some other business. 

A copy reader is the safety-valve to regulate the 
enthusiasm of the reporters. It is his duty to correct 
their errors, supply deficiencies, re-write parts, and so.me- 
times all, of their stories, and finally, to put over every 



HEADLINES AND COPY READING 31 



story a headline that tells, in a few words, what the re- 
porter could not describe in less than a column. By con- 

g,| ,,|U, .|':|ir,S|«l|;|| ■; li llll|;i|i!:fet»Jj*1» 



Athletics 



LeGRAND CANNON, 17 

Editor 



c=^$ 





Jiiii!!!;iihiisi:iikfhiiiSiiiiiiii:i)iiiiiiiiiiiiBiiii:iiiiiiw;i;J;:aiifi.iJ!!itiii'i;:E 





> V 



^W few^ 



LOCAL 





EDITORIAL STAFF 

William Blvens EdItor-ln-Chlef Harold Porterfleld ... Asst. Business Mgr. 

Sarah Mcintosh ..... .Associate Editor Melville Hunter Business Manager 

Charles Copp Circulation Mgr. 

stant reading of newspapers, magazines and books he is 
expected to keep abreast of the times, and be familiar 
especially with everything in current topics pertaining 



32 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

to the affairs of his town, county and state, and to the 
nation in a general way, depending upon the desk he 





iniiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiHuiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinniiiiiiiHiHiii 



THE GIRL/ 
DEPARTMENT 



Miss Julia Lincoln, 191? 
Miss Beatrice Lomas. 1917 



lllllllillllllllllllllillilllllllllllllHIIIIilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllHIIIIIIIIIIIIillllilllHIIIIIIIIIlim 



occupies. He must, primarily, know the style of his 
paper so well that he can eliminate from the reporters' 
copy all the words and phrases not permitted in its col- 



HEADLINES AND COPY READING 33 



umns. He should have, at least to a working degree, a 
knowledge of the laws of libel. In short, a copy reader is 




10 



THE HYDE PARK WEEKLY. 



SOCIETY. 





-^^t // 




DISCUSSION CLUB. Program Commitee. 

Last Wednesday night, the Hyde Charles Smith, Chairman 
Park Discussion Club started on its J&rome Nefif 

expected to know everything the reporters know, and 
very much more. 



34 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 



A study of newspapers will disclose many styles of 
head writing. Some country papers are content with a 
"one-line" head while another, in the same county, 
would use what is called "three decks" to describe the 
same event. Newspapers are judged largely by their 
headlines. Some, in the sensational class, find a large, 



f!iioiiiillliJillilllililliliilll{UII:lllii{||||||llilll!l||||||||||lllll|||||||i||l|l|{l|||ii[l1i|l[|ll!{illlli;illlil^ 



SCHOOL 
NOTES 



Raymond Bush, '17, Editor 




->illlllllllliKllllllli:lllllllll!IIIIIIIIIIIllll||llll!yillli:illlll!llil!l::lllllli;IIIIUIIII>lilll!llll,|l|lli|llllil!llli;iO^ 



black-face scare-head necessary to decorate a twenty-line 
story that received a mild, two-line head in a more sedate 
competitor. Some papers use the past and others the 
present tense in heads; many omit the articles from the 
several lines, and others would not permit an issue to 
appear without them. 

Words or figures are used to designate the several kinds 
of headlines. This designation is written, usually, at 
the right-hand side of the page, as shown in the examples 
on page 31. 

Headlines must, of course, conform to type require- 
ments. Thus, the top line of a three-deck head in 



HEADLINES AND COPY READING 35 

The Kansas City Star will hold twenty to twenty-three 
letters, depending upon the letters used. If M or W 
are included each counts two units; but these may be 
used if there are several thin letters, like L, I, or T. 

A three-deck head, usually, is put only at the top of 
the column, depending upon the width of the paper and 




SHERMAN KEIXET 



EI.MER CrsiCK 
■ lAZEL MACK 
LICII.LE BIDfiWAY 
MARION BIALAC 



r.UV T01.A>n. RuBlne 
ROBERT WII-LIAMS. 
HAROLD MILLER. Ai 
NINA LODGE. Secretit 



editorial Staff 



MILTON HERBRICK. Editor 
WII.Itl'R HOLE. AKiit. Editor 
Rl Til HOLMES. A»8t. Editor 

— AaBorliiti< Edltorn— 

LEONARD Mr(;RATII. Alumni 

— Eftt-ulty Advisers— 

CLASS REPORTERS 



IBuslness Staff 



IRENE TAl'CHEN 



JEANNETTE McDONALD 

LA1RA PETERS 
WALTER JOHNSON 
ARVID PEARSON / 
(iUATTON WILLOIGIIBV 



HIRA PETERS. Clr 
SIMVIN PEARSON. A 



AsHt. Secretary 



the style of make-up. Stories of less importance carry 
two-line heads, and others only a single line. A one-line 
head should not be used on an item containing more than 
one paragraph, but a two-line head may be put on one 
paragraph. 

In some newspaper offices a knowledge of type names 
is not necessary. A set of heads has been agreed upon; 
only three or four kinds of type are used. The copy 



3 6 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

reader marks the story "i column head" or "2 column 
scare ' ' and the foreman of the composing room directs the 
man in his department assigned to set headlines. But in 
a publishing house in which many papers are printed copy 
readers and, indeed, every writer should know the names 
of the type used. The big type foundries have catalogs 
admirably suited to this study in college. This work 
teaches condensation, enriches the vocabulary, and in- 
creases the earning power of the man who may wish, later, 
to obtain employment in a printing house. Instructors 
in schools will find editors of all publications willing to 
mark on their pages the names of the type used. These 
specimens, with one or two catalogs, will form material 
for many exceedingly interesting lectures, and for much 
instructive laboratory work. Printers or the type foun- 
dries will provide samples of type faces from which to 
choose the headings. In the magazines it will be found 
easier, and just as satisfactory to use short headings, 
suggestions for which are easily obtainable in any of the 
standard publications. In preparing a weekly in news- 
paper form, however, students will find it to their ad- 
vantage to choose a good, clear type small enough to 
admit at least three words, and if possible four words 
in the top line. This line should contain an active verb if 
possible. It is not good form to use figures in the top line 
of a newspaper heading, and particularly not to begin the 
line with a figure. A noun used in this line should not 
be repeated in the second line, or deck, as it is called in 
the composing room, and each line should be complete 
in itself ; that is to say the headings should not be merely 
a sentence divided into lines, such as one frequently sees 



HEADLINES AND COPY READING 

MARKS USED IN PROOFREADING 



?>1 





# 

SI 

a 
C 
] 



Delete: take out. 

Letter reversed; turn it ove 

Insert spactt. 

Close up; no space. 



Bad spacing; make spaclne 
even. 



Transpose words or letters. 

Make paragraph. 

No paragraph; run in. 



Indent; put In an em-quad 
space. i""u 



i 

II 



Move to the left. 
Move to the right. 
Raise to proper position. 
Lower to proper position. 
Imperfect type; change. 
Space shows; pur'j down. 



Line up; make the margin 
straight. 



Straighten lines or type out 
of line. 



® 

aXoJU 

o 
/^ 

M 



Let It stand; ritain crossed-' 
out word or litter. 



See copy for omitted words. 



Query to author: Is this cor- 
rect? 



Put In capitals. 

Put In small capitals. 

Put In lower-case. 



Put to roman type. 



Put In italic type. 



Put In bold-face type. 



Wrong font; change to 
proper style of type. 



Apostrophe. 
Quotation marks. 

Period. 
Comma. 

One-em dash. 
Two-em dash. 
Hyphen. 



38 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

in some poorly edited papers in the professional field. 
Although the head-writer who prepared the example 
given here — referring to a band concert — has erred in 
repeating his nouns, the type employed is so well-chosen 
that it is reproduced : 

NEW BAND SCORES! 



CENTRAL'S BAND SHOWS UP WELL 
IN CONCERT 



Other Lines of Music Progressing — Boys' 

Glee Club Scores — Orchestra Under 

Most Favorable Conditions 

in Years. 



A feature at Central High School this 
year is the band, comprising fifteen pieces, 
which was organized at the beginning of 
the school term. Mr. C. Prunty, prin- 
cipal of Central, early in the term, asked 
the pupils if they desired a band. The 
response was hearty and a band was im- 
mediately organized under the leadership 
of W. C. Maupin. 

The members in the band are working 
industriously. Their success was illus- 
trated by the extended applause by the 
school when several selections were played 
at the auditorium meeting, Oct. 27. 

Mr. Maupin said concerning the band: 
"We are progressing nicely, but want 30 
or 35 members. We need players for the 
following instruments: Clarinets, flute, 
piccolo, saxophones, altos, trombones, 
baritone and basses, oboe and bassoon. 

"There are many good times in store for 
the boys who go into the band and learn 
to play. Not only in high school, but in 
the university, musicians are always in 
demand and often have the privilege of 



HEADLINES AND COPY READING 

taking trips with the band and seeing the 
great games." 

Orchestra Starts Favorably 

Asked about the orchestra, Mr. Maupin 
said: "The orchestra is starting out this 
year under more favorable circumstances 
than ever before. We now have twenty- 

A Three-deck Head 

SCOTT IS PRESIDENT 



39 



Seniors Elect Officers, Using Real Poll 
System. 



Freeman Rcott^ nineteen years old, a 
member of the Ciceronian Society, was 
elected president of the vSenior class Tues- 
day, Oct. II, by a large majority. 

When Mr. Scott was interviewed by a 
reporter for The News he said: 

"I feel that the honor is greatly out of 
proportion to my capability. But the 
honor of any position is just what you 
make it. My policy shall be the policy of 

A Two-deck Head 

Here, as specimens, are three standard newspaper 
headlines. For a high school paper they should prove 
acceptable to very nearly any staff. They are sedate, if 
one accepts the opinion of the sensational head writers, 
but they will serve admirably to describe the news of a 
school. The scare-head should not be over-worked. A 
football victory or a fire or other happening of surpassing 
interest may appear under a scare-head. The examples: 

FALL ENDED A FISHING TRIP. 



John B. Warner, Federal Court Clerk, 
Back From Wyoming on Crutches. 

A Two-deck Head 



40 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 
SHE MAY WEAR A CROWN 



POLAND MAY HAVE PONIATOWSKI'S 
AMERICAN WIFE AS QUEEN. 



The Possible Future King, Now Paris 

Banker and Head of Once Royal 

House, Married Helen Sperry, 

Rich California Girl. 



Three-deck Head, or Triple 



MOB AFTER OFFICERS 



Death Threatened for Captain and 

Mate of the Steamer 

Eastland. 



PLACED UNDER ARREST 



On the Way to PoHce Station Crowd 
Attempted to Capture the 
Two Men. 



One Man Struck the Boat's Com- 
mander in the Face Despite 
the Guard. 



GRAND JURIES TO PROBE 



Federal and State Officials Ordered 

Deputies to Begin Immediate 

Investigation. 



The Short vScarc Head 



HEADLINES AND COPY READING 41 

In an office issuing several publications the type to be 
used in a headline should be designated in this way: 

What is an American 

24 Pt. Cheltenham Bold C. & L. C. 

A House That Made History 

18 Pt. Blanchard C. & L. C. 

How to Run the Home 

14 Pt. Caslon Bold C. & L. C. 

We*d Hear an Interesting Story If Walls Could Talk 

12 Pt. Cheltenham C. & L. C. 

RAILROAD CONTROL BY THE UNITED STATES URGED 

8 Pt. Gothic No. 8 Caps 

BY MARY CATHERINE WILLIAMS 

6 Pt. Black Machine Caps 



Where a decorative initial is desired, customarily it is 
indicated in this way: 

24 Pt. Lowell 'np'HE fine, modern harvesting machin- 
I ery which we use in Kansas today 
has been perfected only in recent 
years, but the idea is old. Men were 
working on harvesting machinery 3000 
years ago. The record of the first ma- 
chine, so far as I can discover, is on an 
engraving on stone in the museum of 

Stories run under three-deck heads should carry sub- 
heads, set in small capitals, about two sticks apart. These 



42 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 




TAYLORVILLE, ILLINOIS, JANUARY, 1918. 



Table of Contents. 



■Vmcrica the Hope of the World—//"". K. O. 
■CUbcrl, Slalp S:i/<i'niitndent of PuHic In- 

vTruclion of Kenlu'ckv 103 

A Bit of Earlv Illinois School History— 

/ H. Collins ■ .- 193 

Liking tlic Subject— H. E. Waits 194 

Assimilating Opposition — IV. E. Andrews 194 

Purposeful Citizenship Training — H. Ambrose 

f"'"' 195 

War Work Behind the Lines— £. /. KIcmme. . 196 

The Mark School— T/iui. M. Kennedy io8 

The Flag Goes By ■. ... loS 

Bringing the Winter Birds About Our Homes 

— F.dvard Howe Porhush 199 

Tile "Uricfe Kemiis" Mantelpiece .^ 200 

Arithmttic— Eighth .Year— Ceo. H. Howe 201 

Window Hoods for Chemical Laboratories— £. 

V. Lauphlin 204 

United States Historv- Eighth Year— Gfo. IV. 

Smilh and E G. Lent: , -205 

Language — First and Second Years — Annie E. 

Harper 209 

Nature-Study Agriculture — Eighth Year — Carl 

Colfin 211 

Geography — Fourth Y"ear-^r>. C. Ridgley. . .... 214 



Five More States in Kindergarten Advance.... 

The Field that .Scouty Plowed , 

Studies of Famous Pictures and Statues Per- 
taining to .American History — Lincoln — L. 

Eveline ■ Merrill • . 

Ccography^£ighth Year — Cora M. Hamilton 
Household Arts — ^^Eighth Year-=-/«er M, Boyce 

Forbearance , 

Cohstruction Work — Alberta SIrome 

American Exports Again Soaring ' 

Geography — Sixth Year — F. M.Vaneil 

Katiire-Study Agriculture — First and Second 

Yc.irs- /}imiV E. Harper.. .'..■ 

Grammar — Eighth Vea"r — Clara M. Penstonc. . . 

To .School News Subscribers 

Editorial Comment -H. L. powkes, Co. Supl. 

Calendar of Meetings to be Held. 

Dr. E. Benjamin Andrews 

Department of Superfntendence. ■ 

Religious Education Association 

U. S. Government War Savings ' 

Illinois Centennial Celebration 

An Indian Hint 

Reading- C. M. Sa'nford 

Americanism in the School^OrZ^y E. Gray 

Magazines Received 



A GREAT COMBINATION OFFER 

For Current Events 

THE PATHFINDER 

$1.00 per year 

Tlie Leadinij Current Events IVeekly 

The School News and The Pathfinder Both for One Year $] .90 

C. M. PARKER PUBLISHING CO., Taylorville, Illinois. 



For Educational Matters 

THE SCHOOL NEWS 
$r.25 per year 

The Lcadinq Educational Monthly 



PREPARATION OF COPY 43 

UNIYEESITY DAILY KANSAJV 



Jonior Prom Tonight 
in Robinson Gymnasiuin 
A Realistic War Party 

TrutsporU Arc Not A: 

mfl* R*li«» ml MldBlfhl TnM 
-Tm. U 2 k •. SU 



Cold Makes Morality , Many Changes Reported Coaoly Clubs Placing [ MiKh. Uviuii c. 

01 K.U.^es Wor« |„ f^„p,„y „ sj„„ I pe^anent Income Tax ■"■ "■ "■ *'"'°^' 

"T.'^J'S:' JT "•« AnivalatFI. SiHOHa. Before Voleis' Attention 



Many Have 6««n PromoUd No Additional Tax In Bill 



Ptain Tattt From TV Hm 



Authorities Set Time 
Limit For Vaccination 
As Monday, Jannary 21 



On« Ca»« tUpoilnl On HiB 



sub-heads should describe the matter immediately fol- 
lowing. They should have not more than two or three 
words in them. A half-column story, for instance, should 
carry at least two sub-heads. Never run a story with 
only one sub -head. 

Preparation of Copy. Few persons realize how 
important it is to have their manuscript, or copy, as it is 
commonly called, prepared properly. Compositors very 
often are paid by the day or hour; sometimes they are 
paid for what they do, the type they set. Therefore 
every minute used by them in trying to decipher illegible 
copy, or in folding sheets that are too large, is money lost. 
Even before the day of linotype machines it was econom- 
ical to use paper of uniform size in writing for the press; 
it is more urgent now, in the face of competition, and the 



44 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

general rush to be first on the streets with the afternoon 
edition. 

But there are other considerations. Editors and 
copy readers on all kinds of periodicals work, usually, at 
high speed. Typewritten copy, then, is especially de- 
sirable, and in many offices no other kind will be con- 
sidered. Every writer should accustom himself to setting 
down his thoughts with the machine, that is without first 
writing the story with a pencil or pen. 

Use unglazed paper, eight by five inches, and write the 
long way of the page. Colored papers, in light shades, are 
always welcome. They rest the eyes. 

Never use red ink with pen or typewriter. 

THE MYSTERY OF MERIDEN 

2,000 words. 
By John W. Walker, 
1234 Fifth Street, 
Bucksport, Maine. 

THE MYSTERY OF MERIDEN 
By John Wells Walker 

It was midnight. Snow was falling on 
Meriden Meadows as Walter Winthrop, 
the aged millionaire, walked slowly along 
the street. 

The first sheet of a manuscript should be prepared 
as shown here. Every succeeding sheet should bear 
the name of the story, to avoid losing any part of it in 
editing. 

If writing for a newspaper put your name in the upper 
left-hand corner of the first page. This rule applies to 
members of the staff, also. For publications other than 



PREPARATION OF COPY 45 

newspapers write the title or subject of the story first 
with your name and address under it in the upper left-hand 
comer of the page. In the middle of the page, a third of 
the distance from the top, put the title, and under it, 
as you desire it printed, your name. In the upper right- 
hand corner put an estimate of the number of words. 

Put the lines at least two spaces apart; three spaces 
will please even better. If using a pencil write the lines 
at least one-half inch apart. Begin the first line of the 
first paragraph one-half way down the page, at scale ten 
or fifteen, if using a typewriter, or two inches to the right 
with a pencil. If you must use a pencil have it soft. 
The remaining lines of the story, begun at scale one or 
five, will give what printers call an indent, as type is set. 
Leave margins of one-half inch or more at the top and 
bottom and at both sides of every page. 

Having finished the first paragraph, begin the next on 
another page, unless you are writing conversation or 
testimony. 

Put a ring around all abbreviations that are to be 
spelled out. 

Never begin a sentence with figures; spell them or 
recast the sentence. 

Number every page at the top, in the middle, or at the 
right-hand corner. Put a half circle around the figures, 
or a line under them to distinguish them from the text. 
If new pages are to be inserted they may be marked 9^, 9I, 
or better 9a, and 9b, 9c, and so on. Page 10 of the original 
copy should then be renumbered gd, so that if the extra 
pages are dropped out they will be missed. In some 
offices where typewriters are used, every writer adds a 



46 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

letter to his page number on every page, so that his copy 
may readily be distinguished from the copy of another 
writer. Thus: id, 2d, 3d, 4d, and so on. 

Do not try to tell the whole story on one page. One 
hundred and fifty words, typewritten, is a good limit. 
Seventy-five words with a pencil is enough for an ordi- 
nary page, and it will give the copy reader his chance. 

Do not try to write the headlines for your article unless 
y.ou have been directed to do it. Remember, also, that 
"the blue pencil," in the city editor's office, is a myth. 
The foreman of the composing room, usually, is the only 
person permitted to use one. Do not, therefore, make 
any marks in blue on your copy. 

Do not fasten the pages together. 

If it is necessary to insert anything in the copy it 
should be indicated by writing at the proper place ' ' Insert 
A " and at the end of the insert "End of insert A." 

If using a pen or a pencil be careful about the capital 
letters I, J, L and S. Underline u and a, and overline 
n and o. Small letters often are confusing unless plainly 
written. Make your punctuation marks clearly, espe- 
cially the periods. 

If you begin a quotation do not forget to end it with 
the proper mark. Carelessness in this one respect has 
darkened the lives of many copy readers. 

Telegrams and long quotations are to be set in small 
type, in most offices, usually agate or nonpareil, or "six 
point." This should be indicated in the copy by writing 
the name of the type desired at the top of the quoted 
matter and then drawing a line down the left side of the 
page to the bottom. This line should continue on every 



PREPARATION OF COPY 47 

page to the end of the quotation. Matter set in this 
fashion is run without quotation marks. 

If your story contains words that are to be mis- 
spelled or set in any manner out of the ordinary rule, the 
page should be marked "Follow copy." 

Avoid dividing words at the bottom of the page. The 
division often causes confusion in the composing room. 
Some offices paste the copy together, but many do not 
do it. 

If your story is to be printed with pictures this fact 
' should be shown at the top of the first page. Under your 
name write a line describing the picture, thus: " i column 
cut — Horace Raymond Plimmer." 

Write short paragraphs. Punctuate carefully. Learn 
the style of the paper you write for; and, for your own 
safety, read it every time it is printed; learn its style as 
to capitals and abbreviations. 



THE NAMES OF THINGS 
Illustrations 

Anything written for publication is called manuscript 
until it enters the editor's office, when it becomes copy. 

The contents of a newspaper, farm journal or almost 
any other periodical, are called stories. 

A stickful is about two inches of type. A stick is a 
metal frame used in hand composition — typesetting. 

A catch-line, sometimes called a slug, is a word or 
phrase written at the top of the first page of a story to 
identify it in the composing room. When a long story 
goes to the foreman iii several sections or takes a catch- 
line is put on every piece. Thus: "2 — Corn Show." 

The most interesting part of a story, the theme or 
subject, is called the feature. 

A story of human interest appeals to the emotions 
rather than to the news sense. 

Upper case means capital letters; lower case means 
small letters. 

One line under a word or sentence calls for italics; 
two lines for small capital letters; three lines for large 
capitals. 

To cut a story means to reduce it. The meaning of 
kill is obvious. 

The patent insides of a country paper are electro- 
plates or stereotype plates made in a central plant and sold 
by the column or pound to several hundred papers. 

Cut. Used commonly in referring to newspaper en- 
gravings. 

48 



THE NAMES OF THINGS— ILLUSTRATIONS 49 

Zinc etching. A relief printing plate engraved on 
zinc by etching fluids. 

Vignette. An engraving with a background, or edges, 
that shade off into white. 

Vignetted half-tone. A half-tone in which one or 
more of the edges are shaded from dark tones into pure 
white. 

Half-tone process. A photo-mechanical method of 
making printing surfaces in which the object is photo- 
graphed through a grating called a half-tone screen. 

Half-tone screen. A grating of opaque lines on glass 
through the apertures of which light from the object 
passes to the sensitive plate in photographing for the 
half-tone process. 

Outlined half-tone. One in which the background is 
cut away. 

Chalk plate. An engraving made with a steel point. 

A cutline is the legend, name or description to go with 
a picture. 

Nine-tenths of the photographs received in publishing 
plants are worthless. Editors always welcome pictures 
out of the ordinary. If students having cameras would 
only realize this fact and give it some attention they 
might add materially to their incomes. 

Black or reddish brown photographs with intense 
shadows and bright high-lights, on glossy or semi-glossy, 
smooth papers, make good half-tone reproductions. 
Avoid all rough papers. They are bad to work from. 

Negatives and tin types should never be offered as 
copy. Unfixed photographs or proofs should never be 
sent with stories, as they turn black when exposed to 



50 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

light. Remember that a good half-tone cannot be made 
from bad copy. 

A half-tone reproduction from a half-tone print is 
Hkely to show more or less "pattern" from interference 
of the two sets of cross lines. 

Blueprints should never be sent as copy from which 
to make zinc etchings. The original tracing or other 
drawing in black on white should be sent, as it is impos- 
sible to make a zinc etching from a blueprint. 

Poor photographs handicap engravers. If the print 
isn't sharp and clear, throw it away and have another 
exposure made. The new photograph generally will cost 
less than retouching. Don't depend upon an artist to 
draw details which should have been produced by the 
camera. Retouching is expensive. Resort to it only 
when you have exhausted all photographic possibilities. 

Colors interfere with reproduction. Usually it is 
impossible to reproduce from copy printed on colored 
papers or partly printed in color. Yellow, orange, red, 
and greens are especially bad, and black-printed over these 
colors cannot be reproduced except by redrawing the 
copy. Very dark blues, purple and brown are likely to 
cause the same trouble. Pale blues do not, usually 
interfere with reproduction, as this color does not photo- 
graph. Keep in mind that black printed over the colors 
named cannot be reproduced. 

Put your name and address on the back of every photo- 
graph. 

Cautions for Writers. Country editors, school teach- 
ers or principals, and occasionally students act as cor- 
respondents for daily newspapers published in nearby 



CAUTIONS FOR WRITERS 51 

cities. What may appear to be perfectly good English, 
in the writer's opinion, will be likely, very often, to en- 
counter rules in the editorial rooms that are surprising 
to the uninformed person. When a correspondent sends 
in an item to the effect that "a glorious rain fell in our 
community last night, making the farmers jubilant, and 
causing a great outpouring of thanks to the All-wise 
Creator," he does not know, presumably, that the busy 
editor must take out the "our,'' the "glorious," the "jubi- 
lant," the "All-wise Creator," and let the plain fact 
remain that "an inch of rain fell last night at Water- 
town. ' ' 

Try to avoid using old, shop-worn expressions. Don't 
fall into the habit of beginning your first sentences as you 
have seen such sentences begun in mediocre newspapers. 
In short, don't begin any sentence in your story with 
anything except the thing of prime interest. Few persons 
are important enough to justify using their names as the 
first words of a sentence. The thing a man does usually 
is a better feature than his name. The best method for 
growing wheat is valuable information. The name of the 
man who discovered the method is a secondary matter. 

Don't mix your tenses. General propositions should 
be stated in the present tense: 

He taught that God governs the world. 

He said that the air is forty-five miles high. 

He realized that man is an animal. 

An infinitive should be in the present tense unless it 
represents action prior to that of the governing verb: 

It was not necessary for him to know (not, to have 
known) . 



52 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

I intended to answer (not, to have answered). 

A conditional verb-phrase in a dependent clause should 
be in the present tense unless it represents action prior 
to that of the governing verb : 

Incorrect : I should not have planned it if I had known 
it would have displeased her. 

Correct : I should not have planned it if I had known 
it would displease her. 

In writing or telling a story do not vary carelessly 
from one tense to another. Decide what tense to use, 
and use it consistently. 

Don't get your English from street signs, and don't 
depend too much on dictionaries; they contain errors 
and some language not sanctioned by the best usage. 

"To make intelligent use of the dictionary," says Prof. 
L. H. Beall, "it is necessary that we know what is to be 
found in it, and how to find what we desire, with the great- 
est possible speed, accuracy, and satisfaction. We con- 
sult the dictionary most often to find the spelling, pro- 
nunciation, and meaning of words. The careful dis- 
criminating user of English, however, consults it often 
on questions of syllabic division, history and derivation, 
and usage. He finds there valuable lists of synonyms, 
antonyms, and so forth. The general reader finds a 
substitute for the encyclopedia in the pronouncing 
gazetteer, the biographical dictionary, the dictionary of 
noted names in fiction, and the list of foreign words and 
phrases." 

Don't begin all your stories with interrogative sen- 
tences. It becomes tiresome for the readers. 

Don't begin with: "Some time ago;" "Now is the 



CAUTIONS FOR WRITERS 53 

time;" "A few months ago;" "Today;" "Yesterday;" 
"Last night;" "In 191 1 it was;" "Because she could 
not;" "There are;" "A terrible accident occurred last 
night;" "The worst storm that ever;" "Never in the 
history of;" "Never within the memory of the oldest 
inhabitant;" "A bumper crop of;" "In a bulletin soon 
to be issued;" "In a scientific demonstration;" "The 
Massachusetts Agricultural College has;" "Professor 
Henry Blinker is to;" "Before the Civil War;" "Thirty 
years ago." 

Don't hesitate to repeat a name in the interest of 
clearness. Too many pronouns are confusing. 

Don't use "/can" as a verb, notwithstanding some 
dictionaries. The preferred verb is "lend." 

Don't use "audience" when you mean "spectators." 
The persons witnessing a picture show, or photoplay, are 
spectators. They do not listen to the picture. How- 
ever, as music usually accompanies the pictures the dis- 
tinction is not made easily. 

Don't use "amateur" for "novice." Some amateurs 
are as skillful as professionals. A novice is unskilled, a 
beginner. 

Don't say " the funeral of the late Mr. Brown." 

Don't say "be careful and" or "try and." Be care- 
ful to avoid this, and try to remember it. 

Don't say "Over 400 people attended the meeting." 
Write it "More than 400 persons." The American people, 
the German people, but not "Five people were in the 
room." 

Don't say the "vast majority" more than once a week. 
Leave out the adjective occasionally. 



54 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

Don't refer to hogs and cows and other animals as 
"who.'' "Which'' or "that" will do very well. Who 
is used to refer to persons, or to personified beings of a 
lower order. 

The man who came was my uncle. 

The lion, who had been hunting, said, "I have found 
him." 

Don't refer to the state, town or county as "she^' or 
"her." Use "it." 

Don't say "by leaps and bounds." 

Don't write, "carpenter by trade," "plumber by 
trade." 

Don't say "roughly speaking." 

Don't say the man died "suddenly." Unexpectedly 
is better. 

Don't use "s" in ending eastward, westward, upward, 
downward, backward, toward, and similar words. 

Don't say "the above"; use " the foregoing." 

In direct address use O with a noun, as O John, come. 

No punctuation follows O. 

In expressions of joy, pain, surprise, use oh, as: Oh, 
how beautiful the mountain is! 

When the sentence as a whole is exclamatory a comma 
follows oh and an exclamation point is used at the end; 
otherwise this is the cqrrect punctuation: Oh! I have 
forgotten my camera. 

O is always a capital, but oh is capitalized only at the 
beginning of a sentence. 

Don't "pave the way" for reforms or new ideas. 

Don't refer to all public undertakings as "movements" 
or "steps in the right direction." 



CAUTIONS FOR WRITERS 55 

Don't say "the remains." Use "body." 

Don't say "shipped the body." Say "the body was 
taken, or sent." 

Don't say "had his leg broken." Smith broke his 
leg. Smith's house burned last night. Not "Smith's 
house was burned." It is not necessary to say the house 
burned down or burned up. Just say it burned. 

Don't say "burned like tinder;" "crushed like an 
eggshell; " " like a bolt from a clear sky; " " crazy to do 
it;" "tired to death;" "tickled to death;" "died laugh- 
ing;" "bursting with curiosity." 

Don't say "the policeman kicked him. with his foot; " 
"walked 20 miles afoot;" "slapped him with his hand;" 
"went to the barber shop for a sJiave." In short, don't 
write the obvious. 

Never write that a speech was "breezy" or "neat" 
and that it was "punctuated with applause." A clergy- 
man does not "perform at a ceremony." Do not say a 
player "presided" at the piano; do not say a person's 
features are "pronounced" or "clean cut"; questions are 
not ' ' pivotal ' ' ; achievements are not ' ' colossal ' ' or 
"monumental"; do not make persons "put in an appear- 
ance." An assertion is "untrue," not necessarily "ab- 
solutely false." Say wedding or marriage — not the 
"bonds of matrimony." 

The more careful editors now rule against the use of 
"partially," where "partly" is meant. A building is 
partly of brick. 

Be careful of "endorse" and "approve." 

Don't "inaugurate" everything. Use "begin." 

Ordinarily don't use "commence." This word is in 



56 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

the dictionaries and in English text books: and it is pop- 
ular with many persons, including the writers of circus 
and theater posters. But it is a Latin word that came to 
America from, or at least through, the French. Careful 
writers insist that commence and begin are interchange- 
able, but seldom, or never, use the first. 

Don't use any of the words printed in Italics in the 
same connection as here used : 

"Bought forty acres of land in Smithville." 

"In the month of September." 

' * In the year 1 9 1 2 . " 

"He paid him, annually, $4500 a year." 

"Three different kinds." 

"He left in company with his mother." 

"The committee presented him with a cane." Better, 
"gave him a cane." 

"The horse was much smaller in size." 

"Judge Blewer was present and spoke." 

"As time passed, the bond issues grew smaller." This 
is impossible. The bond issues were smaller, or they 
decreased. 

Put the time after the verb, thus: "The 10 million 
dollars to be spent this year for furs;" "Bill Jones was 
elected yesterday;" "The wheat crop of 1913," not "In 
1 9 13 the wheat crop." 

Don't use "burglarize." The house was entered, or 
broken into by burglars. Burglary consists of breaking 
into a house in which someone is sleeping. It refers to a 
crime committed at night. The law makes a sharp dis- 
tinction between burglary and robbery. Look up words 
of this kind before using them. 



CAUTIONS FOR WRITERS 57 

Don't use "claim'' without looking it up. You can 
claim your hat ; but do not claim you were injured. This 
word is misused every day in nine-tenths of the news- 
papers. 

Nearly all carefully edited publications forbid the use 
of certain words and phrases. No well edited paper 
wishes its writers to use : 

Anxious for Eager. 

Would for Should. 

Will for Shall. 

People for Persons. 

Want for Wish. 

Expect for Suspect. 

These kind for This kind. 

Rise up for Rise. 

Climbed up for Climbed. 

Climbed down for Went down or Descended. 

Love for Like or Admire. You like horses or admire 
them. You like pie or cake. But you love the girls. 

Work w'as begun for Work began. 

Landlord for Landowner. There are no "lords" in 
this country. 

Hard for Difficult. 

Rocks for Stones. The man threw a stone. 

Anticipate for Expect. You may expect trouble, and 
anticipate it by timely precautions. 

Proven for Proved. 

Initial for First. 

Biddy for Hen. 

Old Dobbin for Horse. 

Bovine for Steer. 



58 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLvS 

Bossy for Cow. 

Fight for Oppose. 

Hardly for Scarcely. 

Preventative for Preventive. 

Between for Among. Between is correctly used with 
reference to two things or two persons; among, to more 
than two or several. 

Splendid for Excellent. 

Son of the soil for Farmer. 

Secure for Get or Obtain. 

Practical for Practicable. 

Practically all for Virtually, Almost or Nearly all. 

But one for Only one. 

Above or Over for More than. 

Aggregate for Total. 

Balance for Remainder. 

Conscious for Aware. 

Couple for Two. 

Donate for Give. 

Lads for Boys. 

Tot for Child. 

Kids or Kiddies for Children. 

Babe for Baby. 

Augur for Auger. 

Generally for Commonly. 

Colored for Negro. 

Replace for Supplant. 

From Whence for Whence. 

Individual for Person. 

Party for Person. 

In our midst for Among us. 



CAUTIONS FOR WRITERS 



59 



Less for Fewer. There was less rain and fewer thun- 
derstorms. 

Like for As if. 

Notice for Observed. 

Onto for On or Upon. 

Mutual for Common. 

Past two years for Last two years. 

Propose for Purpose. 

Realize for Obtain. 

Section for Region. 

Universal for General. 

Vicinity for Neighborhood. 

Would seem for Seems. 

Doubtful if for Doubtful whether. It is doubtful 
whether many persons will remember this rule. 

No doubt but that for No doubt that. 

Last for Latest. 

Infinite for Great or Vast. 

Setting hen for Sitting hen. 

Finding out for Learning. 

Per acre for An acre. 

Furnish for Provide. You provide the money to fur- 
nish the house. 

Coffin for Casket. 

Affect for Effect. He is Affected by the disease; 
the medicine Effects a cure. 

Ante for Anti. Ante means previously; Anti means 
opposition. 

Fungus, a noun, for Fungous, an adjective. 

Reliable for Trustworthy. 

Neighborhood of 50 cents for About 50 cents. 



6o JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

Studying the Exchanges. Students will find it to 
their advantage to study their exchanges, the papers 
printed in other high schools. Many of these conduct 
criticism-columns in which the faults of other publica- 
tions are discussed frankly but good naturedly. With 
careful attention to details, and frequent chats with 
the foreman in the printing plant, the student editor will 
be able, almost before he knows it, to detect the weak 
spots in the make-up of his paper or the papers of other 
schools. This practice will be invaluable to every mem- 
ber of the staff, especially if these members intend to 
study journalism in their college years, and afterward 
to engage in the newspaper profession. A knowledge of 
type faces and type possibilities increases very materially 
the earning ability of any reporter or editor. 

One student, an intelligent reader with an assistant if 
possible, should be assigned to the work of caring for the 
exchanges. Desks should be given them in one comer or 
in a separate room where they will not be interrupted, and 
a certain time should be reserved every day, or at least 
twice a week for an examination of papers received. In 
order to get these exchanges it will be necessary for the 
managing editor to write a courteous letter to the man- 
aging editors of papers printed in other schools, setting 
out the plan under which it is hoped to operate, and in- 
viting an exchange of papers. An effort should be made 
to get papers from a distance, in many states, so that a 
comprehensive idea may be obtained of the work done by 
others. Particular care should be exercised by the cir- 
culation manager to see that no school be overlooked. 
After the first few copies have been received it should 



STUDYING THE EXCHANGES 6i 

be the exchange editors' task to assemble the best exam- 
ples, and present them to the managing editor and the 
entire staff for discussion. 

Many high schools neglect their exchanges or fail to 
understand their importance and value. It seems quite 
impossible for some editors to grasp the fine opportunities 
presented in these papers for criticism which is certain to 
be very important for every member of the staff. Some 
of the most successful, most popular newspapers in the 
United States maintain expensive staffs of specialists whose 
sole task is the reading of exchanges, and the selecting of 
the best material they contain for re-printing. This 
material is called re-print or miscellany. The great 
metropolitan dailies give it the most particular atten- 
tion. 

In a high school the purpose of exchanges is not so 
much to provide reprint as it is to give school staffs an 
opportunity to study the manner in which other schools 
prepare their papers; how they edit the copy received; 
how faithfully they observe the rules with respect to 
style; how loyally they are supported, or the reverse; 
the type they use, and how they use it; new courses in- 
troduced in the schools, and many other subjects inev- 
itably to be found by the thoughtful student who is sin- 
cerely interested in his business. 

Obviously the student who proves to be the best 
reader may not be also the most deeply interested in the 
purely mechanical part of a paper. After a Httle prac- 
tice, however, he will detect at a glance the strange or 
unusual in type or make-up, and will refer his discoveries 
to some other member of the staff whose qualifications 



62 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

fit him to judge their value. These discoveries should 
then be clipped and referred to the whole staff for dis- 
cussion, and should be taken eventually to the printing 
plant producing the paper for consideration by the fore- 
man. Very often these exercises result in important 
improvements which otherwise might never have been 
made. 

A column set aside for criticism of exchanges should 
prove an interesting department of any high school paper 
if only the persons producing it have a proper under- 
standing of its purpose. Above everything else criticism 
should be constructive, friendly, courteous. In such guise 
it is welcomed by every sensible school editor. Some 
school critics, like dramatic editors, appear to believe that 
fault-finding and hair-splitting technicalities are proof 
of keenness. Sarcasm frequently ruins this department, 
as it has impaired the usefulness of many otherwise 
excellent writers of theatrical reviews in city offices. 
Faculty supervision appears to be the only remedy in 
some cases. 

High school editors might find much very important 
help in conducting their exchange columns by consulting 
the expert criticisms in such publications as The Printer- 
Journalist, published at Chicago, The Editor, issued at 
Ridge wood, N. J., and The Writer, printed at Boston. 
In such reading the students will learn that it is possible 
to point to another's failings without being offensive. 

What is News in School? A great editor once de- 
clared that anything the Lord permitted to happen was 
news for his paper. But this rule will not apply in a 
school paper any more than in a metropolitan daily. 



WHAT IS NEWS IN SCHOOL? 63 

The unusual always is news in the clearest meaning of 
the word, but not all news should be printed. What 
appeals to a high-school student as a particularly attractive 
story very frequently belongs in the waste basket. This 
is where the mature judgment of the faculty is needed. 
Paper and ink and printing are too expensive to be given 
over to columns of valueless, silly or harmful paragraphs. 
The literary or social organizations of the average high 
school; the changes in classes; courses to be introduced 
or eliminated; school board meetings; athletics; new 
books in the library or reading room of the school ; theat- 
rical or musical entertainments coming or in preparation, 
all provide inexhaustible sources from which the student 
staff may draw its news. In addition the editor-in-chief 
should have the English instructor's help in selecting the 
best themes, and one or two, or even more, according to 
quality, should be printed in every issue. Indeed the 
students will find it to their own advantage to receive 
cheerfully every suggestion of the faculty advisers in this 
respect. 

To encourage students to provide material suitable 
for use in the paper it will be found advisable to conduct 
a contest every month in which money prizes may be 
offered. In some high schools extra credit in English is 
allowed students for exceptionally good work. In one 
contest in a city high school three prizes were offered, 
$2, $1 and 50 cents. All stories should be handed in by 
a certain hour on a date agreed upon, and absolutely no 
deviation from the rules should be permitted. Here is an 
editorial printed in an Eastern high school, setting forth a 
standard which all students might strive to attain: 



64 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 



"Give unto the Breccia the best you 
have, and the best will come back to 
you." The one who, evidently think- 
ing that "anything is good enough for 
the Breccia," passes in a contribution 
scrawled in pencil and showing every 
sign of carelessness and haste, is not giving 
his best. He is giving nobody, and, 
least of all himself, a square deal. Such 
an example is, unless positively glowing 
with genius, fit for no place but the waste- 
basket; and to the wastebasket it usually 
goes. The writer is not giving his best. 
Consequently the best does not come 
back to him. His harvest is discontent, 
disappointment, and distrust. 

It is the neat, well-written article 
that goes to the printer: it is the neat, 
well-written contribution that becomes a 
source of pride to the contributor; it is 
the carefully planned and executed con- 
tribution that always "gets by." Those 
that put the most into their articles are 
those that get the most from them. 
Which is to say, "What isn't good enough 
for your English teacher, isn't good enough 
for the Breccia." That is not too much 
to expect, is it? What true son or daugh- 
ter of Deering would allow such small 
matter to dampen his worthy ardor to 
boost the Breccia, which is one way to 
boost D. H. S.? 



When the school staff has learned that the paper pro- 
duced and sent out to the country represents its insti- 
tution, and that the country will judge of that institu- 
tion's value very largely by what its students are doing, 
the paper will prove to be a very important asset indeed, 
precisely as a college or university weekly may be a real 
advertisement of value when the faculty and students 
need its help. It is proper to impress upon students the 
fact that legislators may be influenced in favor of a meas- 
ure affecting the whole future of an educational institu- 



WHAT IS NEWS IN SCHOOL? 65 

tion by reading the paper printed there. It is a matter 
of record that upon several occasions appropriations 
amounting to thousands of dollars were given a state 
college for printing and journalism after members of the 
committee on ways and means had examined the weekly 
paper issued by the students. 

A high school paper's staff need never search far for 
news. The important thing is to learn what to print and 
what to leave out, and this qualification is not always 
present in youthful editors, any more than in some of 
mature years. In almost any large body of students 
there is likely to be a black sheep, or several, and they are 
likely at any time to do something detrimental to school 
discipline. If it appears wise to describe their miscon- 
duct in the school paper, after consulting with authorities, 
it should be done in a way certain to convince the reader 
that punishment was to follow, or had been given. This 
subject is referred to here because contrary publicity 
has been harmful to many schools whose weekly papers 
treated such matters with levity. The fear of notoriety 
should be encouraged. To glorify hoodlumism in a 
school is to cast a blight on its usefulness, and such 
glorification in a paper is a serious reflection on the 
intelligence of the staff. The kindly but firm advice of a 
member of the faculty, popular with the students, is 
invaluable here. As a leader it will not be difficult for 
him to convince the staff that printing a funny story about 
the students running a theatrical troupe out of town will 
not add to the dignity of the paper, but on the contrary 
will injure it, and prove damaging to the school. No well- 
conducted newspaper will print one word to encourage 



66 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

mob spirit, no matter what may have been the provoca- 
tion. And the ethics of upright journaHsm, in the pro- 
fessional field, are as applicable to the papers printed in 
high schools. 

Special Articles. Subjects upon which special articles 
may be written for a school paper are innumerable, and 
exceedingly attractive. No issue should go to press 
without two or three such pieces. Naturally, untrained 
young men or young women will not readily create such 
material. They will need mature direction and sug- 
gestion. One column may well be the limit, but too much 
condensation should not be insisted upon in the beginning 
because it will discourage the writers. As few students 
will be found able at first to turn in finished copy, ready 
for the printer, the original draft should be gone over 
carefully by a teacher. Very often the most interesting 
paragraph will be found buried several pages from the 
top, and quite frequently the story will lack incident, 
without which it will fall flat. A little encouragement, a 
little help in "getting away" will save the contribution 
from failure. The student should be asked to re-write 
his piece, cutting it down one-third, leaving out every 
superfluous word, and getting the action near the starting 
point. By citing the feature stories in one or two good 
dailies the instructor will find it easy to maintain the 
writer's interest, and encourage him to try again. Usually 
the second attempt will arouse enthusiasm leading to a 
third writing, by which time the piece will be presentable. 
Students should remember that this method is necessary 
in the work of many of the most successful writers whose 
stories they read in the magazines and newspapers. Very 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 67 

few persons can "dash off" acceptable stories. One 
writing usually is enough in getting up a strictly news 
story, but this will seldom apply to the product requiring 
dehberation. George Randolph Chester, whose Walling- 
ford stories were so successful, declares that he never has 
sold one that was not written at least three times; and 
nearly every line in the present volume has been re- 
written twice. To be painstaking is not an evidence of 
amateurishness. Hand-made furniture has much more 
value, and is very much to be preferred to that turned out 
with machinery. 

The best feature stories are those touching closely 
some human interest, something the reader recognizes 
as having happened in his life, something that makes him 
think of home or friends, or stirs a laugh over some recol- 
lection aroused in his mind. To achieve this result the 
writer will use no long, involved sentences, no big words, 
no fancy writing as if he were striving for effect. "My 
Room at Home," will do for a girl's assignment, but 
might be lost if given to a boy. "Athletics and Their 
Effect on Studies," will bring out the best there is in a 
student sincerely interested in the subject, and provide 
material for faculty consideration. It will send him to 
the library for facts, and to the coach for advice. Indeed 
nearly all the assignments given students should have this 
work in view. Here is a list of subjects suitable for boys 
and girls studying English or journalism: 

Fraternities in School and College. Summer Schools. 

Fraternity Effect on Scholarship Studying at Night. 

Standing. The Importance of Shaving and 
Faulty Supervision of Societies. Shining. 



68 



JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 



Clean Teeth, and the Effect on 
Health. 

Socials for All Seasons. 

Games for the Boys. 

Athletics for the Girls. 

Life in the Army. 

Successful Men of America. 

Men Who Have Helped the Na- 
tion. 

Great Reporters in the World War. 

Successful Journalists of England. 

Humorists of America. 

What Is the Chautauqua? 

The Winter's Lyceum Course. 

What are You Going to Be? 

The Minister and His Income. 

Sermons or Lectures — Which? 

Are There too Many Churches? 

How Much Do You Spend in a 
Year? 



What Did You Earn in Vacation? 

Ways to Earn Money. 

Working Your Way through Col- 
lege. 

What the Cashier Told Me. 

The Country's Great Merchants. 

The Value of Latin. 

Fish I Have Caught, and Others. 

Where I Went for My Vacation. 

Camp Comforts and Camp Cookery. 

Sleeping on the Ground. 

Tackle I Use, and the Bait. 

Amateur Theatricals. 

Making Things at Home. 

Pictures for Bedrooms — Not Por- 
traits. 

Building a Log House. 

Dressing for $ioo a Year. 

How Much Does My Schooling Cost 
the County? 



These assignments are merely suggestive. They give 
some idea of the possibihties of feature writing, and nearly 
all of them have been arranged with a thought for the 
reference work involved. For instance, "What the 
Cashier Told Me," will send the student to one of the 
banks for a talk on thrift. Few young persons realize 
just how much money they spend foolishly in a year, and 
not many ever have been told what the amount might be 
made to do. So the visit will have an educational value. 
The student will discover what, perhaps, no one had 
taken the trouble to tell him, that a very small saving 
every day will amount to a hundred dollars in a year; 
that many boys and girls spend at least ten cents every 
day for things they do not need, and that this amount 
is enough money in many instances to dress one person 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 69 

for school. The story should contain the most convincing 
facts and figures. It should show how much interest 
might be paid on a loan with the money squandered by 
thoughtless students, and what might be done with the 
borrowed money, not forgetting the attractive invest- 
ments offered by some banks and by building and loan 
companies. In every way possible the ambitious stu- 
dent should be encouraged to search for the human side 
to his story so that he may arouse the interest of his 
readers as his has been aroused. 

A story about the winter lyceum course should not be 
merely a formal list of the numbers to be presented. 
The chairman of the entertainment committee in school 
or town should be visited, and an effort made to get him 
to tell something about the personality of the chief per- 
formers or lecturers. Such an assignment should provide 
at least a half -column piece of much interest. "Working 
Your Way through College" might be written by a 
member of the faculty, as a sort of pacemaker for the 
staff, while "The Minister and His Income" should be 
assigned to one of the girls whose sympathy will lead 
her to respond quickly to the possibilities of the theme. 
Instructors will discover that girls are exceptionally 
quick as a rule in grasping the idea sought to be con- 
veyed in any article touching home affairs, and usually 
treat it more carefully, and possibly more respectfully 
than many of the boy writers. Some of these girl stu- 
dents may aspire to editorial or departmental desks on 
papers or farm journals after graduation, a fact which will 
lead them to do their best work on the high school assign- 
ments. They respond more quickly to the economic 



70 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

appeal than do the boys. "Household Drudgery" or 
"Who Should Handle the Pocketbook?" will receive 
the most sympathetic treatment from girl writers. To 
the same extent the boy student's enthusiasm rises over a 
subject in which, naturally, he is interested. He should 
not be expected, especially in the beginning, to show much 
energy in assembling the facts about a proposed summer 
school, a meeting of the women teachers, a cooking 
demonstration, or kindred items. Assigned to prepare 
an article about games for boys, the vacations he has had 
or those he hopes to have, the boy student will use every 
minute of leisure in writing. These are human traits to 
be encountered in high school exactly as they are found 
in the offices of daily newspapers. 

Certain students, it will be discovered, find it almost 
impossible to write the first paragraph of their story 
satisfactorily. Merely to tell them how ; to issue general, 
class instructions that "the most interesting fact should 
be given first place," will be as useless, as little help, as 
the average city dweller would find in a bulletin telHng 
him to "prepare ground early for the spring garden," 
or to "have the proper tools at hand." The beginner in 
journalism, unless he is a marvel, will need to have specific 
examples or specimens of stories on his desk. Only a 
few such examples can be given here. What, for instance, 
would be an attractive beginning for a story on thrift? 
Try this: 

The boy who puts his weekly allowance 
into his little iron bank at home, not 
trusting himself to carry it for even a day 
or two, is not learning to resist temptation. 
He presents two possibilities: Either he 
will grow up a miser, hardening himself, 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



71 



against every pleasure, or he will spend his 
money foolishly, some day, in a weak- 
kneed sort of way, and get little for it. 
Henry W. Watson, cashier of the Peoples' 
National Bank, says the only way to give 
a boy an allowance is to give it with a 
string tied to it, metaphorically, or what 
legislators call a joker. 

"I give my boy thirty-five cents a 
week," Mr. Watson said, yesterday. 
"And I require him to carry it in his 
pocket. There are no restrictions about 
his spending the whole thing in one riotous 
whirl of ice cream and soda. But if he 
hasn't fifteen cents to show me Monday 
morning he gets no allowance for another 
week. No member of the family will lend 
him money. In this way I am teaching 
him how to resist temptation." 



The cashier then goes on to tell the student-reporter 
how much a boy may save in a year by putting away fifteen 
cents a week or ten cents a day, or some other small 
amount, and provides a table showing the possibilities 
of this fund if maintained and increased until the boy is 
twenty-one. These facts, arranged naturally, without 
any attempt at ostentation, will prove absorbingly inter- 
esting. 

Instructors will discover that some students have a 
tendency toward "fine writing." This should be dis- 
couraged in the beginning. It is a fault most frequently 
associated with the work of those inclined to write fiction, 
with a particular liking for love stories. To ridicule this 
kind of writing or to embarrass the student turning it in 
at class recitations will have a very bad effect on future 
work. Probably the most successful and at the same 
time the most considerate way of overcoming such 
weakness will be to read examples in sharp contrast for 



72 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

the benefit of the entire class without naming anyone as 
guilty of the offense. 

The "fine writer" has no place in the journalism of the 
Twentieth Century. The public likes the plainly written 
article which the average person can understand without 
re-reading, and without the aid of a dictionary. Instruct- 
ors should quote the sentences taken from a story turned 
in by a student in a high school class in journalism, in 
which the writer described the hero as "peering into the 
steamy obscurity of the enfevered night," while the 
"purple shapes of palms were swaying and genuflecting," 
the while he "seemed to suspire sigh on sigh," and the 
heroine "vouchsafed no answer to his throbbing appeal." 
It should not be difficult to convince the class that such 
things seldom happen in real life. 

The happiest and safest boy, ordinarily, is the busiest 
boy. Assuming that this is true the student writers 
should not confine their journalistic or literary efforts 
to the school paper. They should watch eagerly for 
every opportunity to send a good story to one of the big 
city papers, preferably for a Sunday edition. The story 
most likely to receive a welcome will be, first, the properly 
prepared story, and, secondly, the story having some 
real value, a record of achievement in town or country, 
what editors call a feature story. This need not, nec- 
essarily, be news. The man who builds a house of 
cracker-boxes and old tin cans gathered in alleys and back 
yards; the farmer who produces an exceptionally fine 
crop of wheat or corn or potatoes; the boy or girl who 
makes an unusually high grade in school or wins a con- 
test in a particularly brilliant way; the horse or dog or 



INTERVIEWS 73 

cow that insisted upon returning to its old home after 
being sold to someone at a great distance — these are 
features or news-feature stories which, if properly pre- 
pared, are very likely to be accepted at space rates. 

Manuscript may be addressed to the editor, the man- 
aging editor, or to the department editor. In any event 
it will be handed to the proper person upon receipt. 
This rule is safe in reference to all periodicals. 

Do not neglect to enclose enough postage to bring 
your story home. The editor may not care for it. 

Interviews. Gathering the school news and writing 
special articles for the high school paper provides the 
first and most valuable instruction in interviewing. 
Scarcely any item should be written and printed until 
every person likely to know anything about it has been 
questioned. This teaches the student how to meet per- 
sons and how, eventually, to get from them with as 
much tact as possible the facts he needs. He will be 
astonished to learn, perhaps, that no two or more prin- 
cipals in any certain incident will agree as to what actually 
happened, so that it will be necessary for him to strike 
a happy medium, tell both sides, and be as fair and 
truthful as the testimony will permit. As this is work 
certain to come to him daily in after Hfe, provided he 
chooses journalism as a career, the student should give 
it his closest attention. The experiences of reporters on 
newspapers should prove valuable because men and 
women in the business world are very much Hke men 
and women in school in their human impulses. Reporters 
know that one man cannot be made to remember any- 
thing worth telling if encountered in his office. He is 



74 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLvS 

impatient, irritable, difficult to approach. He glares 
at a reporter as if the reporter had come to ask for money. 
But this man is a wholly different person at luncheon. 
Over his steak or chop, and the other influences that 
apparently have so much to do with regulating the 
sociability of men everywhere, he is affability personified. 
He remembers the most interesting things. He talks of 
deals and contracts and great undertakings, and is 
throughout the visit a real human being. If he has dined 
well he is disposed to treat the reporter whom he meets 
at his club as considerately as he would treat other men. 
He tells him as much as he can safely, and sends him 
away feeling that he, the reporter, has done him a favor. 
There are very few really big men w^ho cannot be 
questioned without danger of affront. The men who 
affect a desire to keep their names out of print in con- 
nection with a laudable enterprise; who do not under- 
stand the compliment paid them by the newspaper that 
evinces a willingness to publish their opinions; who keep 
newspaper reporters waiting for an unnecessarily long 
time in an outer office, often are men whose views are 
not of much consequence either to the newspaper or to 
the public. The man worth while in public life, with 
nothing to conceal, with no executive sessions, is the 
man who takes two or three minutes, even in the busiest 
hour, to answer a question and send the questioner on 
his way satisfied. Men who constantly avoid the news- 
papers are worth watching, especially if they are en- 
trusted with public affairs. This is an age of publicity, 
and the man who fears or evades it is not the man for 
the people. 



INTERVIEWS 75 

No student, and no reporter, should attempt to inter- 
view anyone without first knowing exactly the questions 
he intends to ask. If possible he should learn something 
about the personality of the man to be interviewed, 
remembering that it is immensely flattering to a man — or 
woman — to believe that his name is known to the paper, 
and his opinion sought. 

Men differ in their conduct in the presence of reporters. 
One speaks freely without regard to whether the reporter 
takes notes of what is said; another, although eager to 
be quoted and entertaining the most kindly feelings for 
the paper, apparently, is stricken dumb the instant a 
pencil is displayed. One man insists upon every word 
being taken down as he utters it ; another does not appear 
to think about how his words will read when published. 
The reporter must be quick to detect these things. He 
must humor his host; and if he reads his notes, repre- 
senting that he intends to print them just as he reads 
them, he must not violate his promise. 

Some professional men really object to newspapers 
using their names, and others object as did a somewhat 
noted physician who gave a reporter certain information 
only upon condition that its source should not be revealed. 
"It's unethical," he declared, solemnly, "for doctors to 
be quoted in the newspapers. And — ah — going? Don't 
forget there's no letter 's' on the end of my name — that's 
a good fellow." 

Students showing particular aptitude for interviewing 
will create sources of news that are closed to others less 
gifted. Without certain reporters some classes of news 
never would reach the papers. Men will give an item to a 



76 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

man for whom they cherish a liking while having no 
especially high opinion of the newspaper for which he 
writes. The city editor can seldom induce these men 
to give their stories to another reporter. Sources of news 
in many parts of the city are closed to strangers until 
properly introduced by the favored one. This is scarcely 
fair, but every old newspaper reporter and every city 
editor of experience knows it is a condition to be reck- 
oned with. It proves that the successful reporter has 
done just what every reporter should do: created sources 
of news ; cultivated the friendship of men in many walks 
of life; listened to the bootblack, the banker, the poli- 
tician and the preacher. 

The old-fashioned interview in which questions and 
answers were given verbatim is no longer used, unless 
a very formal statement is desired. Such interviews 
require too much space, and are dull reading. Nowa- 
days the most successful reporters use several methods 
of writing, depending upon the circumstances. In one 
instance it may be interesting to begin the interview in 
this way : 

Wlien Superintendent Billings entered 
his office, this morning, he was smiling, the 
first smile his clerks had seen since the leg- 
islature began to consider the High School 
Funding Bill. Contrary to custom he 
gave his first attention to visitors instead 
of to his books and accounts. "I should 
say I am happy," he exclaimed. "Who 
wouldn't be happy with the High School 
Funding Bill out of the way, and the future 
of the schools assured? " 

Evidently the superintendent was eager 
to begin planning the proposed auditorium. 
An architect was the first person admitted. 
"Yes, sir," Mr. Billings replied to a ques- 



INTERVIEWS 77 

tion. "We shall start immediately to talk 
about this work. We shall have our au- 
ditorium for the next commencement, and 
that fact ought to make every student in 
the school put forth his best efforts. It 
ought to make all of us work better. We 
shall no longer be cramped for room." 

The interviewer may proceed from this point in his 
own language, without quotation marks, telHng just what 
Superintendent BilHngs said about the proposed addition 
to the school, setting down, occasionally, a paragraph 
directly quoted. This tells the story and at the same 
time presents a picture of the superintendent at his desk, 
smiling, shaking hands, and eager for the winter's work. 
It would be ostentatious, and therefore in bad taste, to 
say that "Superintendent Billings told a reporter for the 
High School World." The fact that the interview appears 
in that paper, apparently with authority, will be enough 
to indicate that a reporter actually was present. The 
best interviews, and the best special articles are those 
that contain no mention of the reporter. 

As a matter of completeness of detail the student 
should not forget, in the instance quoted, to include in his 
story a paragraph or two showing how the High School 
Funding Bill fared in the legislature; who voted for it 
and who opposed it. This informs the readers as to the 
school's friends, and will prove valuable in future sessions 
and elections. The student should know, of course, all 
there is to know about the Funding Bill and its importance 
in school life before he visits the superintendent's office. 

Another popular form of interview is that in which the 
person speaking is made to tell the important facts in the 
first paragraph. For example: 



78 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 



"No more dances will be permitted 
during examination week. That is to say 
no dances will be sanctioned by the faculty. 
And we shall decline, also, to approve any 
fraternity or sorority events. Students 
need all the sleep they can get at such 
times." 

Henry J. Byers, principal, was speaking. 
Judging by the emphatic manner in which 
he addressed his visitor there seemed little 
doubt of his sincerity. He wasn't angry. 
He didn't even seem annoyed. He spoke 
as one who has at heart the best interests 
of the students, and created the impression 
that anyone attending a dance during the 
proscribed period might just as well pack 
up and go home. "We rnean exactly what 
we say, " was his concluding sentence. And 
it seemed to end the interview. Indeed it 
did end it. 

Still another method is to describe the person inter- 
viewed and the surroundings. This may be termed the 
narrative form. An interesting paragraph : 

It was snowing, as the records show, at 
9 o'clock this morning, snowing hard. In 
the office of Principal Smith the atmos- 
phere was a few degrees warmer than just 
outside the main entrance, but not much 
warmer. The head of the school shivered 
as he stood at an east window, his hands in 
his pockets, his coat collar turned up. In 
the pipes and radiators a noise resembling 
that heard in a boiler factory indicated 
that some hopeful employe in the base- 
ment was trying, vainly, to distribute heat 
through the school rooms. 

"Cold?" Mr. Smith exclaimed. "Well, 
I may have been more uncomfortable in my 
life. But I can't remember when it was. 
And we are expected to instnxct the youth 
of this county in such an atmosphere!" 

"What about the heating fund?" the 
visitor incjuired, one hand on the door 
knob, as if ready to leave hastily. 

"Heating fund?" Mr. Smith laughed 
sardonically. "In the language of the 
farmer who was looking at his first giraffe, 
'they ain't no such thing.' " 



THE WRITING OF FICTION 79 

Under no circumstances should a student-reporter 
allow his own feelings to enter into the story. An ill- 
natured item growing out of a man's refusal to be inter- 
viewed is in bad form. The brief statement that Mr. 
Smith had nothing to say is sufficient. 

Students should never forget the cardinal rule, so 
often violated: Be accurate. Particularly be careful of 
names. Never guess at the spelling of a proper name; 
it may be Smith or Smythe, Brown or Browne. Errors 
in names are extremely offensive to many persons. 
Never take chances with facts or figures, and never 
reproduce ungrammatical language if such is used by the 
person interviewed. Never write anything tending to 
make the person ridiculous before the public. News- 
papers have been compelled to pay damages for such 
treatment. 

The Writing of Fiction. What some tempera- 
mental persons call the commercialism of the press is an 
influence not to be ignored by a student who has an 
ambition to write fiction. Three meals a day, with as 
much regularity as a man's income will permit, are as 
much a physical necessity for literary men as for any 
other human beings. No man not having an inde- 
pendent fortune can afford to write stories or poetry that 
will not sell, and even a man of wealth would soon tire 
of the practice because everyone in the world who writes 
wishes to see his productions in print. 

Immature minds cannot produce worthy fiction. No 
man, in the opinion of expert critics, can hope to succeed 
in such a field unless naturally fitted for it, or until by 
training and experience, he has gone through a process of 



8o JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

cultivation likely to give him the proper ability. But 
these same critics admit that the ability to write fiction, 
lying dormant in the man or woman, may be developed 
by contact with humanity, by environment and observa- 
tion. That is to say, the critics declare, no man may 
choose fiction or even newspaper reporting as a career in 
preference to hod-carrying because it might be the 
easier job, and expect to be a sensational success or even 
an average writer unless somewhere in his make-up there 
was hidden away the natural tendency to write. This 
does not mean, either, that the man coming from a long 
line of writers can hope, because of some hereditary influ- 
ence asserting itself to produce a best-seller. He must 
first have training, and this will show quickly enough 
whether the ability exists or can be developed. 

Some experienced editor has declared that no one who 
has had no experience can hope to write an acceptable 
love story. The reading of such stories will not impart 
the necessary touch, and the most vivid imagination 
cannot do it. No man can write a good story of the Far 
North if he has lived always in the United States. The 
unreality of it will crop out in every chapter. In short, 
natural tendency and careful training are believed neces- 
sary in literature, and that neither is sufficient, alone, to 
insure success. 

Quite naturally no teacher expects a boy or girl of 
sixteen or eighteen years to know very much about 
human nature or the impulses actuating men and women 
in the different walks of life. The best to be hoped for is 
that the student will learn the rules of writing. A branch 
of instruction in which the most important help is to be 



THE WRITING OF FICTION 8i 

found is a careful study of English literature — the reg- 
ular course. At this point an ambitious student will 
begin to see the reason, if he never saw it before, for much 
of the drill he has undergone in the English department. 
He will learn, finally, that what may seem to be the 
most easily read, the smoothest, most natural writing, is 
the product of patient toil, of much revision, of re- 
arranging and making over until the finished piece was 
ready to submit to an editor. 

Many of the most successful writers of fiction in 
America have served as reporters for newspapers, and 
count it their most valuable experience. In no other way 
could they learn so quickly to detect shams, to know the 
man who poses for selfish ends, the politician, the society 
leader, and most of the other characters making up a 
city's population, and likely to prove acceptable material 
in after years for a novel, or a short story. Writers rising 
from the newspaper ranks often keep scrapbooks and 
diaries showing interesting incidents. Properly handled 
such material is almost as good an asset as a bank account 
because, for one thing, it teaches the aspiring writer of 
fiction that nearly all human actions appear abnormal or 
tiresome if described precisely as they happened. Per- 
haps no better way could be imagined of demonstrating 
this than by considering the ten-page letter of a suicide. 
Nine times in ten such a letter would be a disaster if 
read on the stage in a dramatic performance or used in a 
story. Few^ newspapers would give it space unless written 
by a person of very much importance, but would be content 
with describing its contents. Such a tragic document, 
however filled with pathos, must be reduced to a few lines. 



82 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

So, while learning to reflect real humanity in his 
stories, the writer must learn also to come to the point, 
the action, the important incident, and to have his char- 
acters act so that when the reader meets them they will be 
recognized as everyday men and women. Still, if a 
writer were to portray, faithfully, act for act and word for 
word the persons he meets every hour, the average reader 
would declare the work an exaggeration. A noted actor 
once objected to a part given him because, as he insisted, 
not a line of it permitted him to be natural. "My dear 
William," exclaimed the stage director, "that is exactly 
what we do not wish you to do ; that would ruin the piece. 
Act according to copy." The actor accepted the advice 
and the character was an instantaneous success. In 
another scene the actor believed he should be allowed to 
return to the young lady's side and make one more 
appeal after being rejected. The stage director declared 
it would be a failure on the stage, no matter how true it 
might be to human nature, and directed the actor merely 
to look back from the door for an instant, regretfully, as 
he was about to leave the room. This conduct, scarcely 
what one might expect in real life between two young 
persons, had the right effect on the audience. All of 
which goes to show that audiences and spectators and 
readers do not care for exact portrayal of humanity. 

In order not to discourage the students showing a 
liking for fiction it is proper to let them write their best 
imaginings for the high school paper, or for the home 
weekly. Before such offerings are accepted for publi- 
cation they should have the most critical inspection so 
that the writer may not be led to believe himself approach- 



THE WRITING OF FICTION S^ 

ing perfection too rapidly. The weak spots in the story 
should be pointed out; the difference between lofty sen- 
timent and maudlin nonsense ; the lack of action; dearth 
of incident ; weakness or transparency of the plot. Strange 
as it may seem, the average writer, even in the professional 
field, is the last person to see his own deficiencies in these 
directions. The story he has written is perfect, in his 
eyes. The fact that the action is "off stage" and un- 
natural, the conversation stilted and mawkish seems 
never to impress him. Sometimes it takes years to con- 
vince writers that they know nothing about men and 
women, and less about children, if that were possible. 

Students will find it excellent practice to try to set 
down in writing descriptions of five or six persons with 
whom they are closely acquainted. The first draft of 
such work will be amazing. Instructors will have 
second and third or even half a dozen reductions made 
until, at length, the perfect paragraph will be turned in, 
and the characters will be shown, usually, as they are 
often seen, as clear as a painting. All the superfluous 
words and buncombe will have been taken out. Try 
reading some of Hans Andersen's fairy tales for exercise 
in making pen pictures. 

One has only to look about him among the hundreds 
of "average" reporters, and then to count the really 
worth-while writers of good books to be convinced that 
the number of successes is woefully small. Students 
should make up their minds from the beginning not to be 
average men or women. And the only way to avoid 
being counted in that class is to work, and work hard. 
There is no such thing as "pull" in the Hterary field. 



84 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

Even if influence were exerted in favor of a second-rate 
writer his reign would be short. The pubhc, not the 
editors, bestows fame upon a genius, and unhappily 
neglects to do it in many instances until it is too late for 
the worker to know about it. 

It is worth while here to set down the advice for stu- 
dents in high school journalism classes not to imagine 
that opportunities for the exercise of their abilities are 
to be found only in large cities. No more regrettable 
mistake could be made than to leave the town or state 
where they know many persons, where they have been 
educated, to face the uncertainties of a literary career 
in the presence of the keenest competition. Very few 
of the great writers of America have their homes in New 
York, Chicago or Philadelphia. For the most part these 
men and women live in small cities or towns, travel about 
as they can in search for new material, but choose most 
of their characters and scenes from among their own 
people, and near their own homes. A search through 
the biographies will provide some convincing informa- 
tion on this point. 

After a beginner has had a few years' experience on a 
country, or small-town newspaper in many capacities he 
should begin to offer special articles to the best mag- 
azines. After a few of these have been accepted he may 
safely try his hand at fiction. His first offerings are very 
likely to come back to him, and he will begin to know 
the heart-ache that goes with a literary career. Unless 
he is made of stem material, and is earnest enough to 
overcome disappointment he might better lock his ambi- 
tion away and forget it. There are very few instant 



THE WRITING OF FICTION 85 

successes in the business of writing. Nearly every man 
whose name is known in hterature has had to persist, to 
work year after year, never letting up in his determina- 
tion to produce something worthy, before recognition has 
come. 

During the period of probation, when the world of 
editors seems thoroughly organized against him, the 
literary aspirant is tempted, very often, to lower his 
standards and write down to satisfy the demand for cer- 
tain fads in story-writing. About the poorest of these 
strange outbreaks is the slang story, purporting to rep- 
resent types of characters found in the slums of the cities, 
on baseball fields or in racing stables. Without ques- 
tioning the faithfulness of the portrayal of these types 
or the doubtful importance of preserving their annals for 
future generations, it is not too much to say that the 
student who gives time to studying this class of writing, 
except as a diversion is wasting his talents. "Pot- 
boilers" sometimes are necessary to sustain life, but the 
person who establishes a reputation for slang-writing 
is more than likely to encounter some difficulty in con- 
vincing the public or the editors that he can write any- 
thing else in after years. These writers soon disappear 
from view, and are heard from no more. There is just 
one road to success in literature as in any other human 
activity calling for brains, and that road leads to work 
every day, with patience, good nature, and plenty of 
smiles in discouragement. 

"Don't think too much of style," said William Morris, 
"but set yourself to work to get out of you what you 
think beautiful." And then work at it. 



86 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

Editorial Writing. The first purpose of an editorial 
page should be to make clear the significance of news, to 
amplify, perhaps, and secondly, to comment upon the 
day's happenings and their relation to the human family. 
Most newspapers have what is known as editorial policy. 
They approve or condemn certain political activities, 
and exert any influence they may believe they have in 
turning public opinion to their way of thinking. Whether 
the editorial page does this nowadays is not to be dis- 
cussed here, for whatever the basis for the professional 
confidence in its power for good or evil, the fact remains 
that as an educating factor, as the disseminator of informa- 
tion, it is an agency second only to the news columns. 

In the days of Horace Greeley and the elder James 
Gordon Bennett, names that come naturally to mind in 
thinking of the subject, editorials were ponderous, heavy, 
deliberate, dictatorial in tone. Often they were very 
thoughtful and scholarly productions, but oftener, as 
history shows, they treated men of opposite views with 
scant courtesy, and frequently in a way which the libel 
laws of this generation would make exceedingly costly 
for the paper. They represented then, more than now, 
the overshadowing personality of one man, rather than 
the views of at least a part of the public. With the 
exception of, possibly, Henry Watterson of the Louisville 
Courier -Journal, few such personalities now remain in 
American journalism. Editorial pages now are the joint 
productions, usually, of a group of specialists trained to 
write of specific subjects. Persons charged with this 
kind of work may well be considered much better in- 
formed than the average layman. The ordinary, hustling 



EDITORIAL WRITING 87 

business man is too far removed from the history he stud- 
ied in school or college to grasp readily the important 
relation between an event of 1918 and one of similar 
nature recorded in 1850. He has no time to keep himself 
informed as to progress in municipal government. He 
knows nothing, usually, about the fitness of men nom- 
inated for public office, and he has no leisure for investi- 
gation. A news item to the effect that several men have 
organized to control the supply of iron or chemicals or 
cotton receives only passing attention until the editorial 
writer, going into his books for obscure facts, tells him how 
disastrously such a combination may affect a commodity 
used largely by a factory to which he sells thousands of 
dollars, worth of goods. Few householders know whether 
the cost of paving is right or wrong until the editorial 
page shows them that the supply of asphaltum or creosoted 
blocks or bricks does not warrant the price. A news 
story describes the declaration of war, but the editorial 
shows why the conflict is just or unjust, and sets out the 
relative preparedness of the combatants. Writing of this 
department, a contributor to a high school paper, J. Orin 
Oliphant, said: 



Newspapers are makers as well as con- 
trollers of public opinion. They can force 
a break in diplomatic relations between 
two nations; they can counsel peace and be 
obeyed. Statesmen and politicians utilize 
their columns to convert and to subvert. 
A certain New York newspaper made 
Woodrow Wilson president. It could 
exert a great influence in contributing to 
his defeat next November if it so desired. 
What newspapers can do for politics they 
can do likewise for education. They can 
prepare the public mind and make it recep- 



JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

tivc for any and all changes. They control 
the potential energy upon which educators 
of tomorrow must draw for power to turn 
' the wheels of their machinery. 

But, whatever one's opinion may be with respect to 
the editorial's power in the professional press no one will 
doubt its value in a high school paper, when properly 
conducted, and this means with dignity. Obviously 
the writing of such matter should be intrusted only to 
the most mature students, preferably in the senior year. 
Some of the classmen will be found peculiarly fitted for 
the work, and encouraged by contributions from the 
faculty, may be led to exercise their ability in the inter- 
est of activities approved by the older heads but still 
unpopular, through ignorance, in the student body. 
Indeed the possibilities of the editorial page are almost 
limitless. Exceptionally good work in classes ; a proposal 
to add certain courses to the curriculum; a new. order 
from the board of education; methods of teaching; 
fraternity obligations to the school; honorable conduct 
in examinations; the influence of the alumni; good 
morals in school; the dignity of labor as touching self- 
supporting students; silly fads in dress; the significance 
of sanitation in preventing epidemics; the importance of 
legislation affecting the schools; the kind of men the 
county has sent to the legislature — and numberless other 
subjects encountered in every high school may properly 
be discussed editorially. 

Aside from every other consideration, constant prac- 
tice in editorial writing prepares students for more mature 
work when they enter college or when they begin work 
for themselves in newspaper offices. The young man 



EDITORIAL WRITING 89 

with a well-developed tendency for editorial expression is 
almost certain to be discovered before he has been very 
long a reporter. It is a faculty to be encouraged in every 
way, especially in one or two specific lines. Assembling 
material for an editorial about the country's financial 
system may be of inestimable value when the student 
enrolls in the course on banks and banking in college, or 
it may induce him to prepare himself for the position of 
financial editor, a lucrative post. Constant writing 
about school matters may develop an executive mind 
which, later, will prove its value in the interest of the 
school, or send the student to college intent upon getting 
an education in engineering. Future governors, mayors, 
superintendents, legislators, may grow out of the prac- 
tice gained in studying facts and figures for high school 
editorials. 

With proper guidance students may learn, more 
quickly while writing editorials than in any other way, 
how to express themselves clearly, truthfully, persua- 
sively, and this guidance will be found in high class news- 
papers. Such reading will convince the student that 
small words, simple sentences and brevity are the most 
efficient means to employ in his writing. This part of the 
work is exceedingly important because editorial writing 
very often leads to pomposity, or self-importance which 
will convey the impression that the student is assuming 
more mature wisdom than he actually has to his credit. 

Editorials must be timely. Suggestions for com- 
mencement or holiday activities may be printed a month 
or more in advance of the date vv^hen they are to take 
place. Christmas and what it means in school life would 



90 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

fit into a November issue; the history of Hallowe'en or 
the Fourth of July or any other great day gives a legiti- 
mate excuse for editorials certain to revive lessons the 
students might otherwise forget. Above all things, the 
editorial page should not be used t j stir up discontent or 
agitation among students. To quote the language of 
the street, the writers should not imagine that their mis- 
sion is to start something which the authorities will find 
it difficult to stop. Ruskin's assertion that his one hope 
in life was to arouse "some dissatisfaction" has been 
taken too literally by some editorial writers, especially 
in high schools. It will be exceedingly wise to reserve 
the editorial page for the purposes outlined: Comment, 
interpretation, amplification. 

An editorial may be biographical, referring to some 
member of the faculty, a student of high standing in 
classes, or some graduate who has made a place for him- 
self in the business or professional world. It should be 
simple, always. The honor of the school should be kept 
uppermost in the minds of the writers, for in no other 
way can high school journalism gain the high standards 
it should have, and maintain them. 

The Paper, the School, and the Alumiji. Several 
very important things should be remembered by the staff 
in charge of the high school paper with respect to the 
alumni, the graduates who have gone on to college or 
into business for themselves. One of these objects is 
continued loyalty to the old school, and another is the 
selfish interests of the paper's business office. 

If the students' paper is conducted properly it can be 
made the principal link between the school and the grad- 



PAPER, SCHOOL, AND ALUMNI 91 

uates, and the former students who may not have been 
graduated. This is especially true in the first five years 
after the students leave school. The appeal to school 
loyalty is particularly strong then because the graduate 
knows most of the boys and girls he left behind, and is 
interested in their progress. He likes to see the paper. 
Indeed the graduates' moral, friendly, and money sup- 
port is invaluable. It gives the paper's staff, also, the 
active encouragement of a body of loyal, experienced, 
older men and women. 

Alumni news aids materially in holding the names of 
the graduates on the subscription rolls. If there is some- 
thing in the paper every week about boys and girls and 
teachers he formerly knew, the graduate is likely to sub- 
scribe for it for many years, perhaps indefinitely. In 
addition to helping to hold the interest and friendship 
of the graduates this news has another value : It tends 
to give encouragement to the undergraduates. If a 
student who is downhearted about his geometry or physics, 
and is about to quit school and seek a job in a grocery or a 
garage, learns through the school paper of the progress 
or success of others who have gone over the same road 
before him, very often he takes new courage, and goes 
ahead with studies that seem at the time to have no pos- 
sible connection, however remote, with any human 
activity. The effort to hold all the boys and girls until 
they have been graduated should be one of the high 
purposes of the paper. The staff, but especially the 
managing editor, should consider it a pleasant duty to 
put the "pep" into the everyday routine of the school 
so that the life will be interesting. 



92 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

To help in getting alumni news a graduate, preferably- 
one of the faculty, should have charge of this department, 
or some one living near the school who knows the grad- 
uates for several years, should be selected. Every school 
has at least a few graduates who preserve a deep, personal 
interest in its work, and are willing to help it in every 
way possible. Such a person would be an ideal editor in 
charge of the alumni department. 

Encourage members of the alumni to write letters, 
however brief, for every issue, or at least once a month. 
Some high school papers have found it XJrofitable to have 
contests for small prizes, from time to time, to increase 
the number of these letters. An editor never should 
fail to print letters from the alumni. If it contains an 
item of surpassing interest it should be put on the first 
page, under a display head, in a good position. Show the 
graduates that you like to hear from them and that you 
value their help. 

Have an alumni column in every issue if possible. 
If the letters are not available, put in something to hold 
interest in that department. 

Style in Writing. By reading the books of standard 
authors, and by painstaking practice in paraphrasing one 
may acquire some of the style of great writers. A boy 
having read much of Dickens or Thackeray or of any 
other writer in whom he has been sincerely interested is 
very likely unconsciously to imitate the style to which 
his mind has been accustomed. While this early influ- 
ence will be most excellent training, students should 
remember that the newspaper's purpose is to convey 
information, that its material should be facts, and that it 



STYLE IN WRITING 93 

is intended, first, to be interesting and accurate rather 
than Hterary. The style of Dickens or Victor Hugo 
would scarcely be acceptable in news-writing. A stu- 
dent wishing to be successful as a reporter should, there- 
fore, try to develop a style suited to the extremely mixed 
audience to which he must appeal. His writing should 
be clear, direct, and compact. To tell what happened 
should be the first purpose; how it happened may be 
recorded later in the story. Involved sentences, non- 
essentials, elaborate descriptions, will destroy the prin- 
cipal characteristics of an ideal news story: Conciseness, 
virility, straightforwardness, honesty. If the incident 
suggests dramatic action, so much the better, particu- 
larly if it is described in language within the understand- 
ing of the very large number of readers who have had no 
high school or college education. 

Ordinarily a bulletin issued by an experiment station 
or a board of agriculture is a depressing thing. It may 
contain the facts but the writers have been so buried in 
the search for information, so steeped in their sciences 
that their natural style of writing was suited only to 
minds like their own. This is where the "middlemen of 
science," as Dr. Slosson calls them, may find their field 
of labor. These middlemen are the writers who know the 
technical terms and who have, also, stored away a useful 
vocabulary of everyday, plain English, in other words, an 
acceptable style quite impossible to the scientific men who 
discover the facts. One can easily imagine the descrip- 
tion Alexander Graham Bell prepared for scientific men 
in telhng the story of the telephone, and then compare 
the imaginary product with the newspaper stories an- 



94 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 



nouncing the telephonic conversation in the spring of 1 9 1 5 
between New York and San Francisco! The great, 
reading pubHc is concerned with the fact, succinctly 
stated; it cares precious little about the means. There- 
fore the readable style is the style to be desired for pub- 
lication. This is the brief, narrative way in which one 
writer told of Bell's marvelous achievement: 

Less than forty years ago, Alexander 
Graham Bell, standing in a little attic at 
No. 5 Exeter Place, Boston, sent through 
a crude telephone, his own invention, the 
first spoken words ever carried over a wire. 
Tlie words were heard and understood by 
Thomas A. Watson, who was at the re- 
ceiver in an adjacent room. On that day, 
March lo, 1876, the telephone was born, 
and the first message went over the only 
telephone line in the world — a line less 
than a hundred feet long. The world 
moves a long way ahead in the span of one 
man's life. On Monday afternoon, Jan- 
uary 25, 191 5, this same Alexander Gra- 
ham Bell, sitting in the offices of the 
American Telephone and Telegraph Com- 
pany, at New York, talked to this same 
Thomas A. Watson in San Francisco, over 
a wire stretching 3400 miles across the 
continent and part of a system that in- 
cludes 9 million telephones, connected by 
21 million miles of wire. 

Another writer, intent on getting the news to the 
reader immediately, began in this way : 

New York and San Francisco talked by 
telephone today. It is about 3400 miles 
from one city to the other. The most in- 
teresting fact in connection with this re- 
markable achievement is this: Dr. Alex- 
ander Graham Bell, inventor of the tele- 
phone was the speaker of the occasion, and 
the man who listened to his voice on the 
Pacific Coast was Thomas A. Watson ; and 
these two men spoke the first words that 
ever a telephone carried about forty years 
ago. 



STYLE IN WRITING 95 

The first example illustrates the narrative style; the 
second is news. Some writers are happiest in one style, 
and some in the other. A newspaper writer rarely 
changes his method, his manner or style. 

Ostentation enters into the style of many writers. 
This is seen in bulletins in which, instead of getting the 
reader's attention by telling something interesting, im- 
portant or novel, the author begins with this sentence: 

The Division of Public Welfare of the 
Department of Extension of the University 
of Texas was established for the purpose 
of assisting the people of the State in their 
study and solution of the economic and 
social problems which confront them. 

Nothing could be more deadly. Titles and depart- 
ments and "the solution of problems" gain no friends for 
the article which it is so important to have read. How 
much better to begin simply with the thing of impor- 
tance ! How much more human it would be to adopt the 
advice of William H. Hills, editor of The Writer: 

"Always begin your story with a short strong sen- 
tence. Come to the point at once. Don't waste words 
telling what you are going to tell. Go ahead and tell it. 
What you want is to interest your reader at the outset, 
and if your story is going to interest him at all, the main 
fact put at the beginning, simply and strongly, will 
attract his attention quicker than anything else. 

"Don't get the idea into your head that because a 
sentence is simple it must be commonplace. 

' ' Do away utterly with the idea that writing a special 
despatch to be sent by telegraph to a paper 1500 miles 



96 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

away, is essentially different from writing a story to be 
printed in your own city." 

" I do not say that racy, reckless writing, be it never so 
wrongful, is unattractive," says Henry Watterson, in his 
Compromises of Life. "It certainly pleases our worse 
side; it flatters a combativism more or less common to 
all men. But it cannot hold its own, and never has held 
its own, when brought face to face with upright, pains- 
taking, sensible, and informed writing." 

A grave and famous physician was asked once, and 
only once, as it turned out, to write a column for the 
Sunday edition of a metropolitan daily paper on "The 
Graceful Walker." The editor had in mind the many 
peculiar persons seen in a city throng, the men who take 
mincing, hesitating, timid steps, and the women striding 
along independently, mannish to the last degree, and 
reckless of the toes they tread upon. What, then, was 
his amazement upon receiving from the scientific con- 
tributor a treatise in which, in the first paragraph, the 
reader was admonished, solemnly, to see to it that in 
walking gracefully he first set in motion the crural and 
the tibial muscles, not forgetting to make the adductor 
muscle act in harmony with the sartorial muscle and the 
peroniiis longiis. 

All this, the editor knew, was superfluous. The 
assignment he had given might have been made into an 
absorbingly interesting Sunday article. The trouble 
was in the physician's inability to distinguish between 
audiences: The readers of the medical journal, whom he 
so often addressed, and the ordinary, everyday, common 
sense world where his services were demanded only when 



STYLE IN WRITING 97 

everything else had failed. He would have hesitated 
long before saying "leg muscles," like a well-meaning 
lecturer on sociological questions who insisted upon hav- 
ing things "function," rather than "act." 

Practice in writing is necessary for every educated 
person, particularly practice in paraphrasing. This work, 
if persistently continued, with a standard dictionary at 
hand, will give the most astonishing results. It will 
enlarge the vocabulary and make correct spelling easier. 
It will give buoyancy and originality of expression obtain- 
able in no other way. Finally, it will prove to the stu- 
dent's satisfaction that he understands the words and 
passages he has molded to his own liking. 

Do not fear to imitate. Some of the best, the most 
successful writers of exquisite English, Stevenson and 
Carlyle among them, acquired vocabularies and expres- 
sion in this way. Of course this imitation must be within 
limits: It should consist of copying striking passages 
from favorite books, making condensations of them, and 
a few days later, producing the same thought in your own 
way. This should be done frequently. 

The best newspapers and magazines, those most 
carefully edited, should be read daily. Particular atten- 
tion should be given the first sentences and first para- 
graphs, the arrangement of facts, and the way in which 
the stories end. 

An excellent plan is to collect clippings on selected 
subjects and arrange them alphabetically, in envelopes. 
In time this will become an almost invaluable library. 
Newspaper men call such a collection a morgue. No 
well-equipped metropolitan paper is without one. Obvi- 



98 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

ously, the editor has this help at hand chiefly for the facts 
it contains, and not for the EngHsh, but a student can 
afford to keep it for both. In going to it for inspiration 
he should remember, too, this cardinal rule: In fiction 
the climax may be anywhere, usually near the end; 
in writing for the press, in journalism for the industries, 
it should be in the first paragraph. 

An attempt to show superior education by "fine 
writing," always is grotesque or ridiculous. This fault 
very often appears in the writing of inexperienced persons. 

Another grave fault found in the writing of many 
persons is in the indiscriminate use of pronouns or syno- 
nyms as a result of an excessive fear of tautology, the 
repetition of words. It will require reading and study 
to overcome this fault. Tautology, of course, is to be 
avoided, but no writer should hesitate to repeat where a 
substitution might cloud the meaning. For example: 
"There was danger for the people in the proposed action 
of the convention; danger for property, danger for the 
party itself." Or in this: 

"As far as one could see, alfalfa was waving: alfalfa 
on the windswept lowlands, alfalfa on the plain." Such 
sentences make distinct mind-pictures and convey a 
lasting impression upon the reader. Of course this is as 
true in writing about cows or crops as it is in writing 
of any other subject. The purpose is to attract readers 
and to impress them, either with entertainment or infor- 
mation of much value, so strongly that what they read 
they will remember. 

Mixed Metaphors, and Other Errors. Young writ- 
ers, and many old ones, are much inclined to similes and 



MIXED METAPHORS 99 

metaphors. These, frequently, are mixed in a way cer- 
tain to irritate the copy-readers, prove very entertaining 
to the subscribers, and make the paper ridiculous. No 
usage is more dangerous. "The noted aviator," wrote a 
young reporter, "declared he would leave no stone un- 
turned in his efforts to win the altitude record." While 
this is sufficiently absurd it is no worse than a quotation 
from the Hartford Times, found in Robert Luce's "Writ- 
ing for the Press," in which a correspondent said of Mr. 
Blaine: "Like a drowning man, he did not let the grass 
grow under his feet before snatching at a straw," or 
the Boston JoiirnaVs editorial declaration, cited in the 
same book, that Fred Douglass would not "be bHnded 
by the noise of brass bands." "Mr. Jones once shook 
hands with a crowned head," is astonishing, when crit- 
ically considered, but certainly no more remarkable 
than the story of a young reporter in Kansas City in 
which the public learned that a gasoline stove "exploded 
without a word of warning," and, upon another occasion, 
that a man "struck the girl he was engaged to's brother." 
Some of these examples are, of course, rather extreme. 
They are used here merely to impress upon students and 
others the folly, altogether too common, of trying for 
effect, and thereby achieving a most undesirable result. 
The safest rule is to say plainly what is to be said and 
to have done with it. Avoid exaggeration. What, for 
instance, did the student mean who wrote: "A college 
education is worth its weight in gold to me?" Attempted 
epigrams, superlatives that will not bear analysis at the 
editor's desk, incorrect quotations that prove one's lazi- 
ness, carelessness or ignorance; all these faults should be 



loo JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

guarded against, and the best way to do it is to keep the 
vocabulary clean by reading well written books and 
newspapers and magazines. Such faults are as objection- 
able in the office of a professional or trade publication as 
at the desk of the city editor of a metropolitan daily 
paper. Excursions abroad in English may safely be taken 
only by the experienced, and many experienced writers 
are guilty of grave errors. It is always advisable, when 
in doubt, to follow the purists. This may save the 
writer's reputation in some places. There is excellent 
authority for saying reliable and as though, but it is better 
to use trustworthy and as if, and thereby escape criticism. 
' ' Every writer, ' ' says Alfred Ayres in ' Some 111 Used 
Words,' "should aim to preserve the individuality of the 
words he uses; he should not allow any word to trench 
on the domain of any other word. This he should do 
in the interest of clearness; in this way only can he 
avoid ambiguity. The so-called new meanings are the 
product either of a restricted vocabulary or of a lack of 
painstaking. 

It is not the purpose here to give students a course in 
English, but it is deemed wise, nevertheless, to point out 
several errors made by nearly all young writers. While 
these errors are not always embarrassing and may not, 
indeed, be detected by many persons, they are errors just 
the same, and for that reason should be avoided. 

How many persons can write, correctly, a hundred 
words in which will and shall and would and should are 
necessary, and use these auxiliaries properly? Bourke 
Cockran, a somewhat noted orator, was reported by the 
New York SitJi in this way: 



MIXED METAPHORS 



lOI 



I believe it should be allowed to carry 
out any reasonable tariff policy without 
obstruction. If it brings prosperity we 
ivill (shall) all be content. If it does not 
we will (shall) all know that some other 
remedy is required, and by the process of 
elimination (we) will (shall) come down to 
the only radical cure. Let tariff legisla- 
tion be enacted immediately and we will 
(shall) have a chance to test the sentiments 
of the country on the silver question alone, 
unembarrassed by tariff. 



Shall is to be used in the first person, and will in the 
second and third persons simply as auxiliaries to predict 
future action or condition. For example: — 



I shall return Monday. 
You will miss your train. 
We shall fail. 

You tvill injure yourselves. 
You will lose your way. 



Simply to foretell that something is going to happen 
use shall with I, or we, and will with other subjects. 

Will is used with I or we, and shall with other sub- 
jects, to promise or to show the intention or determination 
of the speaker, who controls the action whoever may 
perform it. Thus: 



I will pay the bill. 

We will help you. 

They shall not escape. 

You shall go. 

He shall be detained. 

You shall vacate the house. 



Should and would follow the same rule as shall and will. 
In this way: 



I02 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 



I should not need your help, and, if I did 
I would not ask it. 

I asked him whether he should go or stay 
(" Shall you go or stay? ") 

He said that he should stay ( " I shall 
stay"). 

He said that he would go ("I will go "). 

He feared lest he should fall ("I shall 
(fall". 

The foregoing are simple rules of grammar taught in 
the grade schools, but experience shows that they are 
forgotten by many pupils. The writer wishing to use 
the proper word, and being in doubt should consult his 
grammar or lessons in English, or even a dictionary. 
Another example from The Sun, quoted by Alfred Ayres, 
shows the improper and the proper use of would and should: 

If that were all that he meant he would 
not be supporting it, and I would (should) 
not be taking the trouble to oppose it. If 
everything in the world be increased lo 
per cent in value, why we would (should) 
pay ID per cent in addition for what we 
would (should) buy and we would (should) 
get ID per cent more for what we would 
(should) sell, and we would (should) be 
exactly in the same place we occupied 
(were in) before. 

A particularly troublesome form of noun construc- 
tion, seen in every issue of most newspapers, might be 
eliminated with much credit to what is termed "News- 
paper English." Several examples are given: 

The Sons of Erin 'will hold a meeting, 
(will meet) Thursday night, /or the purpose 
of electing (to elect) officers. 

Material was, Friday morning, received 
(received Friday morning) for the construc- 
tion of (to construct) the first wing of the 
new depot (station) at Twentieth Street 
and — . 

In the consideration of (in considering) 



MIXED METAPHORS 



103 



Dr. Ling's evidence (testimony) Judge 
Brooker stated that he (said he) did not 
want (desire or care) to be responsible for 
the establishment 0/ (for estabUshing) a pre- 
cedent — . 

In the collection of (in collecting) taxes, 
Mr. Harrison claims (says) he has ex- 
ceeded all — . 

It is not by the consolidation of (by con- 
solidating) these mills that the millers of 
Kansas hope to win, but in the distribution 
of (in distributing) the products — . 

It was shown that in Denver over (more 
than) $1,000,000 (i million dollars) was 
spent in the repression (in repressing) and 
correction (correcting) of crime. This 
means a per capita — . 



The mixing of languages is exceptionally bad style. 
The Latin preposition per is much over used. It is cor- 
rect before Latin nouns only: per cent, per annum, per 
diem. How much better to write "He received five dol- 
lars a day;" "the yield was 50 bushels an acre;" "he 
spent $5,000 a year." 

Obviously, it is impracticable for editors or copy- 
readers to correct more than a small number of such 
errors as those quoted; the wonder is that they correct 
so many. It is under the pressure inevitable to such 
work that these editors pass quickly over sentences like 
these : 



The board of regents and President 
Waters were given a reception last night. 

Johnson was given the fight in the ninth 
round. An hour later he was given the 
gate receipts, or at least a large share of 
those receipts, and a purse on the side. 

Farmers are given another chance to 
grow a crop of corn. 

Roosevelt was given a reception as he 
entered the auditorium. 



I04 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

Correct example : A reception was given the board of 
regents and President Waters. 

Managing editors have wept over this double-headed 
savage. Warnings have been issued, men have been dis- 
charged, rewards have been offered, but still this queer 
construction nolds its place in many offices. Seldom can 
writers be induced to turn it around. It is as difficult 
to make them understand that "the fight was given to John- 
son in the ninth round," as it is to impress upon them that 
committee, board, commission, are collective nouns, that 
the committee was, and not were. Only in rare cases in 
which the individual members of the committee, board, 
or commission are thought of should were be used instead 
of was. 

Reporters seem to delight in using former and latter 
until readers are wearied trying to follow the meaning. 
These words, and any other form of antecedent con- 
struction, should be used very sparingly. Anything 
that sends the reader back or takes his attention from 
the story — foot-notes, for example — should be avoided. 

As the student progresses in the study of special 
journalism he will encounter rules against many words 
and phrases that have been to him as family heirlooms, 
words he sees daily in the newspapers and in books, 
phrases that have become a part of the speech he uses 
and hears others use. He probably will be interested, 
and perhaps amazed to learn that the final "s" has been 
dropped from afterward, backward, upward, downward, 
in this country, although not in England; that antici- 
pate does not mean what it is supposed to mean ; that there 
is a rather important distinction between anxious and 



MIXED METAPHORS 105 

eager; that desirous, solicitous, concerned are perfectly 
good words, little used ; that financial and pecuniary are 
not interchangeable ; that hurry is used frequently when 
haste would be a better word; that each other should be 
used in speaking of two persons and one another when 
referring to more than two, an error found in the books 
of nearly all English writers, and in many American 
publications. 

Example: When Nichols and Case met they greeted 
each other as old friends. 

Ten or twelve women and girls jostled one another in 
their eagerness to enter the department store in time for 
the White Sale. 



THE LAW OF COPYRIGHT 

Under the Copyright Act now in force these are the 
steps required to be taken to obtain copyright registra- 
tion for periodicals : 

1. Publish each number (that is, place it on sale, 
sell or publicly distribute it), after printing therein the 
required copyright notice, and before making any appli- 
cation to the Copyright Office for registration. (As to 
the form and position of the notice see below.) 

2. Promptly after the publication of each issue 
send two copies thereof to the Copyright Office, Wash- 
ington, D. C, with a formal claim to copyright as re- 
quired by law to protect the copyrightable contents. 
This may best be done by using application Form Bi. 
Also send a remittance by money order for the statutory 
fee of $1, which sum includes the cost of a certificate 
under seal. Such certificate the law expressly provides 
"shall be admitted in any court as prima facie evidence 
of the facts stated therein." 

Application forms for registration will be forwarded 
by the Copyright Office on request. 

Publishers who desire to do so may send in advance a 
sum to be placed to their credit against which the fees 
will be charged for each registration to be made thereafter 
upon the deposit in the Copyright Office of the copies 
of the successive issues promptly, from time to time, as 
they are published, accompanied by the required "claim 
of copyright" made upon Form B2. This must state 

106 



THE LAW OF COPYRIGHT .107 

the exact date of publication of the issue (the earliest date 
when copies of the first authorized edition were placed 
on sale, sold, or pubHcly distributed by the proprietor 
of the copyright or under his authority). 

Notice of Copyright: The law prescribes that the 
copyright notice shall consist either of the word "Copy- 
right" or the abbreviation "Copr. " accompanied by the 
name of the copyright proprietor, and the year in which 
publication was made. 

In the case of a periodical the law directs that the 
notice sheuld be applied either upon the title-page, or 
upon the first page of text of each separate number, or 
under the title heading. The law expressly provides that 
one notice of copyright in each number of a newspaper or 
periodical published shall suffice. 

Titles : The general title of a newspaper, m^agazine, or 
other periodical cannot be recorded under the copyright 
law to protect the title as such, or apart from any par- 
ticular issue of the periodical. Copyright registration 
is not for the purpose of securing the exclusive right to 
use the title, but to protect the contents of a number. 

Typesetting in the United States: Section 15 of 
the law provides "That of the printed book or period- 
ical . . . the text of all copies accorded protection under 
this Act . . . shall be printed from type set within the 
limits of the United States, either by hand or by the aid 
of any kind of typesetting machine, or from plates made 
within the limits of the United States from type set 
therein, or, if the text be produced by lithographic process, 
or photo-engraving process, then by a process wholly 
performed within the limits of the United States." 



io8 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

Franking Privilege : The law requires that the post- 
master to whom the articles to be deposited in the Copy- 
right Office are delivered shall, if requested, give a receipt 
therefor and shall mail them to their destination without 
cost to the copyright claimant. According to the ruling 
of the Post Office Department the money order (or other 
remittance), and the revenue stamp are not entitled to 
free postal transmission. These with the application 
should therefore be forwarded in an envelope addressed 
to the Register of Copyrights to which letter postage has 
been affixed. 

Fees : The statutory fee of the registration of any one 
issue of a periodical is one dollar, including a certificate 
under seal as explained in the foregoing. Every issue of 
a copyright periodical requires the payment of its own 
registration fee of one dollar. 

Contributions to Periodicals: Section 3 of the Copy- 
right Act provides "That the copyright provided by this 
Act shall protect all the copyrightable component parts 
of the work copyrighted, and all matter therein in which 
copyright is already subsisting, but without extending 
the duration or scope of such copyright. The copyright 
upon composite works or periodicals shall give to the pro- 
prietor thereof all the rights in respect thereto which he 
would have if each part were individually copyrighted 
under this Act." 

But copyright registration may be specially made for 
any particular contribution to a periodical if desired. 
The copyright notice should be printed upon such con- 
tribution in the periodical and a single copy of the peri- 
odical should be deposited for registration of the particular 



THE LAW OF COPYRIGHT lo^ 

contribution, accompanied by a copyright claim, foi 
which application Form A5 should be used. 

Remittances should be made by money order, pay- 
able to the Register of Copyrights. No money (cur- 
rency or coin) should be placed in any letter or other 
matter sent to the Copyright Office; all remitters are 
urged to send an identifiable remittance. Postage stamps 
should not be sent as fees. Checks cannot be accepted 
because of the procedure in relation to copyright fees 
established under the rules of the Treasury Department. 
To avoid the trouble of their being returned, therefore, 
checks should not be sent for capyright fees, unless cer- 
tified. 



THE LAW OF LIBEL 

It is not wise for a newspaper writer to concern him- 
self too much about the law of libel, but every writer, and 
for that matter every business man also, should have 
some knowledge of what is meant by freedom of speech 
and freedom of the press. If a reporter's mind be kept 
constantly on the danger of libel his writing is likely to 
be cramped and his expression restricted. The fear of 
possible consequences would hamper his work. But the 
public has certain rights he must respect. When the 
Constitution guaranteed free speech and a free press it 
guaranteed no more freedom to the press than to the 
people. A newspaper cannot rightly and safely print 
anything a man may not speak. 

No man can reasonably set his reputation at a higher 
estimate than the law puts on it, and the law, acting in 
the same spirit in which in criminal cases it presupposes 
a man innocent until he is proved guilty, declares him 
wronged until the accusing paper proves its case. And 
even then, if malice be proved, the truth is not a complete 
defense. 

Libel laws differ in the several states but all, finally, 
are based on the Constitution. Libels affecting the repu- 
tations of private persons may be classified in this way : 

Libels imputing to a person the commission of a 
crime ; libels having a tendency to injure him in his office, 
profession, calling or trade; libels holding him up to 
scorn and ridicule, and to feelings of contempt or execra- 



THE LAW OF LIBEL iii 

tion, or impairing him in the enjoyment of general society. 
On this subject Newell, on "Slander and Libel," in de- 
scribing the general doctrine, says it is a libel to impute 
to anyone holding office that he has been guilty of improper 
conduct in his office, or is actuated by wicked, corrupt or 
selfish motives, or is incompetent for the post. It is 
libelous to say of any member of the learned professions 
that he does not possess the technical knowledge neces 
sary to the proper practice of such profession, or that he 
has been guilty of professional misconduct. 

It is not necessary, as in the case of slander, that the 
person libeled should still hold office or exercise that pro- 
fession. It is actionable to impute past misconduct 
when in office. The books are filled with cases supporting 
this view. 

There is little distinction between libel and slander 
because slanderous words are punishable whether printed 
or spoken. In short, to put it very plainly, do not print 
anything about a man that you would not dare to say to 
his face. 



JOURNALISM, COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY AND 
PROFESSIONAL 

Students who have maintained their interest in 
journaHsm throughout their high school years, who have 
worked dihgently to make the school paper the best in 
the state, are very likely to know, before graduation, 
whether journalism is to be a part of their course upon 
entering college or university. No more dependable 
test could be imagined. If the university be their choice 
they will turn, very naturally to preparation for country 
or city newspaper, while in the state college, where the two 
institutions are separate, agricultural and industrial 
journalism are presented. In either field the students 
will learn after graduation that for the energetic and am- 
bitious man a living wage is assured from the beginning, 
and that in both, as time will prove, advancement will 
depend wholly upon themselves. 

The average newspaper reporter receives from $12 to 
$20 a week for the first year or two. Thereafter, if he is 
determined not to remain in the ranks of the average, 
and is smart enough to get out of that class, his pay will 
be increased to $35 or $50 a week. Few reporters, the 
country over, receive more than this, but the work pre- 
sents opportunities for special writing for papers and 
magazines so that, as in any of. the professions, the income 
depends entirely upon the man's resourcefulness, and his 
intelligence and activity. An industrious reporter may 
turn his attention to desk work, or copy reading and 



JOURNALISM, COLLEGE, PROFESSIONAL 113 

ultimately become a city editor, managing editor, news 
editor, or editorial writer with very much higher pay. 
City editors on large dailies receive from $2500 to $5000 a 
year or even more, while in a few instances the salaries 
range upward to $8000. The scale for managing editors 
begins at $2500 and goes up to $10,000 or $12,000 a year. 
Some, of course, are paid very much more than this, but 
these are the exceptions not to be considered as representa- 
tive of the professions. Where such attractive salar- 
ies are paid 'the positions are filled with grave responsi- 
bilities calling for a wide range of world-knowledge of 
men and affairs, and for the best executive talent. Com- 
petition in the newspaper field of employment is keen 
and the demand for brains is constant. Only the best 
reach the top of the ladder, and these, usually, are spe- 
cialists. 

A reporter, eager to get ahead rapidly, will give his 
attention to things outside the day's routine.. He will 
study some particular subject upon which he may, 
eventually, become an authority, and so be in position 
to command higher pay. Every large newspaper needs 
specialists in municipal government, political science, 
finance, literature and the drama. Experts in any of 
these subjects are seldom idle, and very frequently receive 
the highest salaries. It is distinctly important not to 
be an average reporter. The profession is filled with 
them. 

In nearly all universities offering courses in journalism 
the work covers the entire scope of newspaper making. 
This includes materials and methods; organization; 
comparative journalism ; history of American journalism ; 



114 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

interpretation of the news; advertising; newspaper 
administration; magazine writing; the short story; 
editorial problems and policies; editorial practice; the 
mechanics of printing, and the art of printing. 



NOTES ON NEWSPAPER HISTORY 

The Chinese vs^ere printing with wooden type, 
large blocks with which they made impressions in some 
way not recorded in history, long before printing or 
presses were thought of in other countries. 

Printing from movable types was invented by Guten- 
berg about 1440. 

Journalism undoubtedly had its beginning in Rome. 
The Acta Diurna, on tablets or manuscript, reported the 
general news, such as fires, executions, storms and other 
happenings. 

News was distributed before the era of newspapers 
in letters and circulars written in Venice, Nuremberg, 
Paris, London and other European cities, and in Boston, 
in this country. There is evidence of these letters in 
1536, a century after type and ink had appeared. 

The first newspaper in the United States was pub- 
lished at Boston in 1690 by Benjamin Harris. It was 
called "Public Occurrences, both Foreign and Domestic.'" 
It lived only one day. The government suppressed it. 

Nearly fourteen years later, April 24, 1764, the 
Boston News-Letter was issued. The title was changed 
later to Massachusetts Gazette and Boston News-Letter, 
by Richard Draper. The character of the paper was 
antagonistic to the rising spirit of independence and 
allegiance to British rule, and this spirit continued when 
the paper was published by Draper's widow. It was 
the only paper printed in Boston during the siege, and 

"5 



ii6 JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

it ceased to appear when the British troops evacuated 
the city. 

From 1690 to 1775 many papers were started but 
were discontinued, usually for political reasons. The 
most noteworthy of these was the Boston Gazette, 1719^ 
1754. A paper deserving special mention was the New 
Boston Gazette, published by Edes in 1735. This was 
an able and dignified paper to which Otis, Samuel Adams 
and Warren were contributors. 

The New England C our ant appeared August 7, 1721. 
It has been distinguished in history as the paper on which 
Benjamin Franklin began his career as an apprentice. 
It was edited by a brother, James Franklin. His vig- 
orous and fearless editorials created a sensation. He 
published the news under serious difficulties. Franklin 
was soon in trouble with the clergy — especially with 
Cotton Mather and Increase Mather, stern and merciless, 
and of great influence in their day — and finally with the 
government officers. The comments of the C our ant 
produced so much trouble and scandal in the little town 
that its issue was forbidden, except under very arbitrary 
restrictions. Franklin was imprisoned for attempting to 
evade these restrictions. In 1722 Benjamin Franklin, 
then only 16 years old, became editor and publisher and 
continued those duties for several months. The same 
spirit of independence characterized his work. The 
paper was finally abandoned in 1727. The Franklins 
removed to Newport, R. I., where they established the 
Gazette in 1732. From 1729 to 1769 Benjamin Franklin 
published the Pennsylvania Gazette. 

During the period of the Revolution and the days of 



NOTES ON NEWSPAPER HISTORY 117 

unsettled government that followed, many stirring papers 
were published. Probably the most noted of these was 
the Massachusetts Spy, published by Isaiah Thomas, 
a distinguished journalist and author. The paper was 
very outspoken in denouncing the British government, 
and for this was forced to move to Worcester, Mass. 
The transfer was made on the day of the battle of Lexing- 
ton, 1776. 

Until 1725, Boston and New York were the only cities 
having newspapers. 

At the beginning of the struggle for independence, 
1775, the New England colonies had thirteen newspapers. 
The oldest, but not the first, newspaper in the United 
States is the New Hampshire Gazette, founded in 1756, 
known as the "father of the New England press." It is 
still issued under its original name. 

The first daily newspaper published in the United 
States was the New York Journal and Register, 1788. 

One of the historical papers of the period was the 
Boston Liberator, established Jan. i, 1831. This was an 
abolitionist paper, published by WilHam Lloyd Garrison. 
So bitter were its denunciations of the existing conditions 
of slavery that the state government offered a half mil- 
lion dollars reward to any one who would cause the editor 
to be arrested and brought to trial. The paper was sus- 
pended December 30, 1861, but the editor lived to see 
slavery abolished. 

The period of immense expansion in journalism in 
the United States began about 1830, on the estabHshing 
of the great New York dailies. 

The Daily Sun was the first penny paper in the 



ii8 ■ JOURNALISM FOR HIGH SCHOOLS 

United States. It was established in 1833. The paper 
was reorganized by Charles A. Dana in 1868, and gained 
wide repute for its concise news items and brilliant 
editorials. 

Harper's Weekly, now merged with the Independent, 
is the oldest of the illustrated weekHes. It was founded 
in 1857. In 1875 the New York Graphic was the only 
illustrated daily paper. 

The Civil War produced Sunday newspapers. Before 
the Battle of Bull Run, the citizens of New York and 
Chicago frowned at the thought of a Sunday newspaper. 
As in London and Edinburgh today, they would not 
sanction it. But when there were a million men in arms, 
and the whole Nation trembled with the thunder of can- 
non, anxious parents, fearful wives, knowing that the 
battle was on, could not wait until Monday morning for 
news from the front. 

But if the war did much for the press, newspaper 
men did much for liberty. To supply the people of the 
country with news from the field, a veritable army of 
war correspondents was organized and a telegraphic 
system perfected that resulted in the founding of the 
Associated Press. 

In the beginning of newspaper history one man, 
usually, was editor, publisher and printer. Next came 
the reporter. In the Seventeenth Century the special 
or war correspondent appeared here and there, but did not 
gain a recognized place in the newspaper world until the 
Crimean War, and not in the United States until the 
Civil War. Now every great daily has its special cor- 
respondents in every war and at every great event in 



NOTES ON NEWSPAPER HISTORY 119 

addition to the service of the Associated Press and other 
organized news agencies. 

The Associated Press is a co-operative association of 
newspapers. In addition to a staff of reporters or cor- 
respondents in the principal cities of the world this 
organization and others similar in purpose have agents 
who are permitted to use the proofsheets of member- 
newspapers before those papers go to press. In this way 
all the available news is obtained for telegraphic transmis- 
sion to other points where member-newspapers are pub- 
lished. These members pay pro rata shares of the ex- 
penses of the rews association, the amount to be paid 
being determined according to the service given. Some 
papers use the entire twenty-four-hour report while others 
take only the news sent for an evening or morning paper. 
The news agencies described provide, also, what is called 
a "Pony service," condensed especially for daily papers 
in small cities. 



The "books named in the following list will be a valua- 
ble addition to the high school library; they may be 
obtained from any large bookstore: 

Authors and Publishers, A Manual of Suggestions for 
Beginners in Literature. G. H. Putnam and J. B. Putnam. 

Practical Journalism. Edwin L. Shuman. 

Making a Newspaper. John L. Given. 

Making a Country Newspaper. A. J. Munson. 

The Writing of News. Charles G. Ross. 

Writing for the Press. Robert Luce. 

Reporting for the Newspapers. Charles Hemstreet, 

Proofreading and Punctuation. Adele M. Smith. 



ENGLISH 

Journalism for High Schools (Charles Dillon) $1.00 

Tells you how to organize every department of news- 
paper work ; provides excellent models for the school 
paper; shows how to get business to support it, and 
goes carefully into every item likely to be needed in 
this branch of the work. 

Graded Exercises in Punctuation and Use of 

Capitals 25c. 

By Elmer William Smith, Professor of Public Speaking 
and Associate Professor of Literature, Colgate University 

The usual method of teaching punctuation is to re- 
quire the pupils to commit a list of rules and, without 
practice in applying them to well-worded and easily 
analyzed sentences, try to use them in their own 
writing. Graded Exercises reverses the process. This 
method requires the pupil to commit only one or two 
rules at a time and gives ample exercise in applying 
them to a variety of sentence forms before passing to 
the next. The value of its rules and suggestions is seen 
in the greatly improved transcript and letters which 
students prepare. Write for a sample copy. 

New Grammar Drill (Elsie Gemmill) 50c.* 

Contains principally a thorough review in those parts 
of English Grammar which the pupil should know 
previous to the study of Latin. 

Short Stories (by Harvard Men) $1.25 

Selected by Prof. Howard Maynadier as the best 
among the stories written by his advance classes in 
English at Harvard University. 

Educational Dramatics (Emma Sheridan Fry) 75c 

A most helpful textbook for teachers, directors, club 
leaders, and all others who are interested in Dramati- 
cal work. 



LIBRARY OF 



CONGRESS 



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020 313 927 5 



